


No Reason You Can't Do It

by calcliffbas



Series: White Lotus Zuko [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Big Brother Sokka (Avatar), Bonding, Book 1: Water (Avatar), Coming of Age, Friendship, Gen, Identity Reveal, One-sided Aang/Katara (Avatar), Order of the White Lotus, POV Multiple, Pre-Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Precious Aang (Avatar), Protective Katara (Avatar), Secret Identity, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, The Blue Spirit - Freeform, White Lotus Zuko, Zuko Joins The Gaang Early (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:00:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 50
Words: 175,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27167608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calcliffbas/pseuds/calcliffbas
Summary: When King Bumi and his friend Iroh ask Aang to take Iroh’s grumpy nephew with him to the North Pole, Aang thinks it’ll be pretty cool. But when the Gaang's new friend Zuko turns out to be a firebender, that’s just the beginning of their problems.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang & Sokka (Avatar), Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar)
Series: White Lotus Zuko [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983037
Comments: 671
Kudos: 1304





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Come say 'Hi' on [Tumblr](https://calcliffbas.tumblr.com/)! :)

Aang had been debating whether or not riding the Omashu mail chutes _blindfolded_ would be cooler than riding the unagi when Katara and Sokka turned up.

Because on the one hand, he’d already done what he thought was a pretty good job of riding the elephant koi _without_ a blindfold, and he needed to do something different. People had gotten tired of the marble trick pretty quickly back on Kyoshi Island, he reflected sadly. But he could understand needing something new to keep his attention – he’d always gotten pretty bored of meditation back at the Southern Air Temple, back when… Yeah.

He sighed, and tried hard to refocus on his dilemma.

See, he’d also tried riding the unagi, and although it had been pretty awesome to have Katara paying him attention again after their weird argument, almost drowning had definitely counted as _Not Fun_. It was a tough choice.

“Aang!” Sokka called, and Aang remembered that, oh yeah, they’d been talking about something!

“Oh, hey guys!” He waved, jumping up from where he’d been sitting on the edge of the mail chute. “Hey, Sokka, do you think it’s more important to look _cool_ , or to look like what you’re doing is _deadly?_ Because I’ve been thinking –”

“Aang, buddy,” Sokka interrupted, holding his hands up. “That’s a great question, and the fact that you’ve been thinking is hugely encouraging to me, don’t get me wrong. The answer is that deadly is always cool, but cool isn’t always deadly.”

Aang nodded slowly and tucks that information away in the back of his mind. “Does it matter if you’re doing deadly stuff blindfolded?”

“There’s a difference between cool and stupid, Aang,” Katara told him, looking at Sokka like he was an idiot. Aang had seen Katara give Sokka that look quite a few times, actually. “If you ever need to know the difference, you probably shouldn’t go to Sokka.”

Sokka scowled at his sister, but he didn’t say anything too mean. Which Aang thought was, you know, a good thing. “Your kooky friend Bumi sent us to come get you,” Sokka told him.

Ordinarily, Aang would be really happy to go see Bumi, but right now, he was kind of in the middle of something important.

“But I was gonna go ride the mail chutes!” He whined. “I was gonna do it _blindfolded_ , Sokka!”

“Blindfolded?” Sokka repeated. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “That sounds pretty cool.”

Aang was feeling hopeful that Sokka might actually be coming round when Katara folded her arms and cleared her throat.

“Sorry, Aang, but the mail chutes are probably going to have to wait,” she said. _Ugh_. “Bumi told us that he’s got some visitors who wanted to speak to you.”

Aang wasn’t sure who these visitors were, but considering he’d been a visitor on Kyoshi Island and had almost been fed to the unagi, and then been a visitor in Omashu and had to face _three deadly challenges_ – which had turned out to not be so deadly, but had still been pretty scary – he was starting to get the feeling that visitors weren’t always good news.

“And they’re looking for you,” she added.

Aang frowned. “Me?”

“The Avatar,” Sokka clarified.

Aang gulped. _Definitely_ not good news.

“It’s okay, though!” Sokka broke in, giving him a big smile and two thumbs-ups. “The old guy seemed really cool! I mean, the kid seemed like a bit of an angry jerk, but _whatev_ – ouch!”

“Are you coming?” Katara asked, withdrawing her elbow from Sokka’s ribs.

Aang doesn’t really _want_ to, but it doesn’t look like he’s got much of a choice.

“I guess so,” he sighed, casting another mournful look towards the mail chutes. Hopefully these visitors wouldn’t be here for _too_ long, and then he could get back to the fun stuff pretty quickly.

“They’re two guys saying they’re an uncle and nephew,” Katara informed him as they started walking. “The old guy’s kind of weird – he was talking with Bumi about Pai Sho or something, I don’t know – but he seems nice. The younger guy’s probably Sokka’s age.”

“Is he kind of weird too?” Aang asked tentatively.

Sokka snorted. “Seems like a real fun guy.”

“Really?” Aang perked up. “What kind of fun are we talking? Are we talking, like, ‘riding the elephant koi blindfolded’ fun? Or is this that ‘I like dressing up in face paints’ sort of fun?”

“Warrior’s uniform,” Sokka muttered, before clearing his throat. “Remember how there’s a difference between cool and deadly?”

Aang nodded. Now that he thought about it, he _really_ wanted to see if he could ride the elephant koi blindfolded. The mail chute was a good second option, though. “Uh-huh! Like, you’re cool, but Suki’s cool _and_ deadly, you know? But I don’t know anyone who’s just _deadly_.”

Sokka smiled at him brightly. “Talk smack about the uniform again, and you’ll find out just how deadly I can be.”

Aang didn’t know whether that was _super_ cool or just downright terrifying. It was a really disconcerting thought to apply to Sokka, who had been drooling in his sleep this morning.

“So…” he began slowly. “This fun guy. Is he, like – I don’t know, a _good_ kind of fun, or what?”

“The old guy seemed to like tea, so I asked the kid what teas he likes,” Sokka said. “And he just glared at me and muttered that he drinks _shōgayu_. I don’t even know what that _is_.”

Aang thought for a moment – it seemed like a familiar word. Oh, that was it! “I think my friend Kuzon liked _shōgayu_ tea, but I can’t remember what it was.”

Sokka shrugged. “Whatever. Point is, he was really _scowling_ at me when he said it. Real charmer.”

Aang grinned as he flicked his fingers and bent a light breeze Katara’s way. She’d gotten annoyed at him when he’d made a little gust of wind mess up her hair loopies a few days ago, but he’d figured out that she didn’t mind so much if he did it around her ankles.

She reached out and drummed a few of her fingers on his arrow. It felt weird, and Aang giggled as he ducked away.

“I know it’s kind of weird for them to be here,” Katara told him reassuringly. “ _I_ wasn’t sure about them when they turned up and said they were looking for the Avatar, either. But Bumi seems to trust the old guy, and there’s only two of them.”

“I don’t know about the angry dude,” Sokka interjected. “Something about him just rubs me up the wrong way.”

“It’s probably that he’s taller than you,” Katara pointed out.

“He is _not!_ ” Sokka squawked. “And even if he _was_ , it wouldn’t prove anything!”

Katara winked at Aang, and he had to stifle his giggles.

…

“Are you sure about this, Uncle?” Zuko muttered, for the fourth time since they’d arrived in Omashu.

Iroh sighed. “Master Oyaji told us that the Avatar had only recently left Kyoshi, Nephew. And King Bumi will not have invited us here for nothing. If he claims that the Avatar is here, he is here.”

Zuko huffed for the ninth time since they’d arrived in Omashu. “I’m not talking about _that_ , Uncle. I’m talking about what happens _next_.”

“Ah,” Iroh brightened. “Yes, I believe you’re right, Nephew – about what must happen next.”

“I am?” Zuko looked a little surprised, but he recovered himself well. “I mean, uh – so what’re we doing instead, Uncle?”

“Yes, you are indeed right,” Iroh mused, letting his mind run through the possibilities. “We cannot greet the Avatar with _assam_ tea – not if we claim to be allies! No, matcha would be a much more welcoming blend; or perhaps _shōgayu_ , if we have any…”

“We don’t have any _shōgayu_ tea, Uncle,” Zuko rubbed his hands over his face. Iroh could empathize – to be without tea may as well be to be without purpose. “We ended up drinking the last of it for my birthday.”

“Have we really been without _shōgayu_ tea for ten months?” Iroh asked incredulously.

“That’s not the _point_ , Uncle!” Zuko snapped. “If you’re not sure about me joining the Avatar, what are we doing _instead?_ ”

“Oh, no, Nephew,” Iroh shook his head. “No, you must join the Avatar – he will doubtless be in need of your presence, your wisdom, and your skills.”

The right side of Zuko’s face flushed bright red. “But – you said –” he spluttered. “Uncle, I can’t join the Avatar!”

Iroh wondered why Zuko was suddenly so intent on avoiding the very reason they had come to Omashu, especially after spending a week and more insisting that they reach the city as soon as they could. _One day_ , he lamented silently. _One day, his nephew would learn to think things through._ “And why not?”

“Because –” Zuko stopped. “Because…” he tried again slowly.

Iroh gave him what Zuko had on previous occasions described as his _cryptic Pai Sho smile_. He found that it was often more effective than trying to bring his nephew round to his viewpoint through reasoned discussion.

“Agni damn it all,” Zuko muttered under his breath. Iroh chalked up another victory to the Pai Sho smile.

“I wonder if our friend King Bumi has any matcha?” He asked of no one in particular.

“This is going to be a disaster,” Zuko moaned.

“I fear that if we must settle for offering the Avatar assam tea, you will be proven right, Nephew.”

Zuko let out a deep sigh, but his eyes were fond when he glanced at his uncle. “Can I get that in writing, Uncle?”

Iroh allowed himself to smile at his nephew just as fondly. “I have more faith in you than that, Nephew – please, do not limit your ambitions to those dependent upon the Avatar’s taste in tea.”

“I thought that would be the most important thing for us to consider?”

Iroh chuckled. “Perhaps – can you imagine? An Avatar who prefers assam to jasmine?”

“And the Order disbands the next day,” Zuko quipped dryly, and Iroh felt another surge of affection for his quiet, serious nephew. It was rather rare for Zuko to let out his humorous side, so his nerves must have been a little more settled now.

“I am sure that your experience will prove invaluable to the Avatar, Nephew,” Iroh assured him. “But you must remember who you are.”

Zuko’s expression became resolved, and he nodded firmly. “I will, Uncle.”

“And be sure to remember,” Iroh added, feeling the need to impress this wisdom again on Zuko. “That if you insist on attempting your… _unique_ style of ginseng again, to add honey to the root before you steep it.”

“I know, Uncle.”

“And if you happen to chance across white jade bush –” Iroh broke off as two guards entered the room. He hoped that Zuko remembered his training. It would be a shame if his nephew accidentally poisoned the Avatar by incorrectly brewing his tea.

“Presenting His Royal Majesty, King Bumi of Omashu,” one of the guards recited. “Master of earthbending, friend of Flopsy, and connoisseur of cabbage-based desserts.”

Iroh felt a twinge of curiosity – that last title was rather new!

“And presenting Avatar Aang,” the second guard continued where the first had left off. “Master of airbending, friend of His Royal Majesty, friend of Flopsy.”

Bumi hadn’t changed a bit, Iroh noted with amusement and a little exasperation. His eyebrows were just as fluffy, his eyes gleaming just as brightly. But the Avatar reminded Iroh of some of the birds he had seen on his travels through the Earth Kingdom. His limbs were slender, and Iroh wondered to himself if the young airbender – and he had to be an airbender, with those tattoos, likely a monk, with those robes – had hollow bones. Avatar Aang walked with a kite-pigeon-toed gait and he tilted his head to the side as he assessed the two unfamiliar faces.

Iroh and Zuko rose to their feet and bowed low in the Earth Kingdom style.

“It is an honor to meet you, Avatar Aang,” Iroh intoned. Then, he straightened up and gave the boy a smile. He found that young boys were often set more at ease by familiarity than formality. “I hope that you will join us as we discuss matters of house with King Bumi?”

The Avatar scratched at his ear and glanced at Zuko. “Uh, sure. Are we going to finish before dinner?”

“I don’t imagine it shall take so long as that,” Iroh assured him. “Your presence here shall not be required long, Avatar Aang, nor shall we keep you beyond what necessity demands.”

The monk brightened up at that. “Great! – I mean,” he coughed. “That would be preferable.”

Iroh stifled a smile. It seems that freedom was not merely a philosophical preference for airbenders.

“Let us get straight to the point, then,” Bumi said plainly, sitting down and gesturing for the Avatar to sit at his right side. “Master Iroh is a good friend of mine. On the recommendation of a mutual friend of ours, Master Oyaji of Kyoshi Island, he has come with a proposition for you, Aang.”

Zuko busied himself with pouring the tea, as Iroh nodded his thanks to Bumi and turned to face the Avatar. He hoped the Avatar liked assam, because otherwise this meeting might end rather unsuccessfully.

“I understand that you are travelling to the Northern Water Tribe to find a master,” he began. “I ask that you take my nephew with you as a travelling companion.”

…

The Avatar kept staring at Zuko’s scar.

He would be be nodding along to something Bumi said, only for his eyes to drift over to the left side of Zuko’s face. Then he’d nod along for a bit longer, and then suddenly jerk his eyes back to Bumi and hastily ask some question that Uncle had already provided the answer to.

Zuko didn’t really care about it too much, except that Avatar Aang wasn’t really very subtle about it. Hadn’t he ever played Pai Sho? Uncle would have been able to suss him out in an instant!

He _did_ care a little more about how unwilling the Avatar seemed to be here. He kept fidgeting and diverting the conversation with unhelpful comments about mail chutes and unagi, whatever they are. He thought they'd been mentioned on Kyoshi?

The last time Zuko had been in Omashu, King Bumi had made him and Uncle Iroh ride the mail chutes. He’d managed to get out of it on his first visit, but Bumi was adamant that he wouldn’t be getting away the second time round, and Uncle had extolled the virtues of this fun, fast and joyous mode of transport. Experience had proven Uncle to be a flat-out liar, and whatever these _unagi_ were, if they were to be mentioned in the same breath as the mail chutes, Zuko wanted nothing to do with them.

“And I’m pretty sure you could ride them blindfolded, they’re not that dangerous,” Avatar Aang was presently saying. “Not that that’s not _cool_ , though! I’m pretty sure it’d still be kind of dangerous, if that’s what people wanted, I’m just saying –”

“You are absolutely right, Master Aang,” Uncle agreed. “Your travels to the North Pole will doubtless be dangerous – which is why those of us who support you and your cause would feel better if you took my nephew along with you.”

Zuko was getting the weirdest feeling that he was looking into a strange mirror. Here, the Avatar was Uncle, always distracted from the important things by whatever mildly diverting curiosity took his fancy. And Uncle was the one keeping him on track.

Did that make Zuko _Uncle?_ He wondered, before shuddering slightly. Agni, was he going to end up at the North Pole, lecturing the Spirit Bridge on the importance of allowing _sanpin-cha_ to absorb the fragrance of the jasmine blossoms overnight?

“But why do you want to come with us?” The afore-mentioned Spirit Bridge asked, looking at Zuko with a confused expression. “How come your uncle doesn’t want to come too?”

Zuko exchanged a glance with Uncle and was reassured to see the warmth in his eyes.

“My uncle has important business which demands his attention,” Zuko chose his words carefully. “Accordingly, his presence will be required across the Earth Kingdom and the Mo Ce Sea in the coming months.”

“As my nephew says, Avatar Aang, I am a busy man,” Iroh patted his belly mournfully. “With little time for adventure. However, my nephew’s youth affords him freedom, and he seeks to aid you in your mission. If you will allow him to accompany you on your journey, I can assure you that he will be of use to you.”

The Avatar wrinkled his nose. “My mission?”

“To restore the balance,” Zuko elaborated.

“I was kind of just planning on going to the North Pole,” the Avatar mumbled. “I haven’t really talked with my friends about what we’re going to do after that.”

Zuko could empathize with that. When he had been younger, he hadn’t thought beyond the immediate situation, either. He very pointedly did not acknowledge Uncle’s own pointed glance. _I’ve learnt to think things through, Uncle_.

“Well,” he said after a beat. “I can probably help you get there, too.”

“To the North Pole?” Avatar Aang asked sceptically. “Don’t you just – fly straight north?”

“Would you be flying upon your magnificent sky bison?” Uncle asked politely.

The Avatar grinned and nodded. “Appa will like that you said that!”

 _Appa_. Zuko filed the name away. “Appa gets tired like the rest of us, Avatar. I can help you plot a journey through the Earth Kingdom that will keep you relatively safe from the Fire Nation.”

Weirdly, the Avatar scowled at him. “My name’s _Aang_.”

… Okay. Zuko could accept that. “Aang,” he tried again. “I’d like to help you, and I know the Earth Kingdom pretty well. Will you allow me to join your group?”

The Avatar – _Aang_ looked at him for a moment. Zuko tried to meet his gaze firmly, and tried not to hide the left side of his face.

“I’ll have to talk about it with my friends,” Aang said eventually. “But if they say it’s okay, you can come.”

Zuko would have preferred a simple _Yes_ or _No_ , but it had taken three long years for Uncle to teach him patience, and he didn’t forget his lessons. “Thank you. When do you think you’ll have an answer?”

Avatar Aang shrugged. “Well, I’ll talk with Katara and Sokka. But I kind of had some stuff I wanted to try before dinner today, so it might have to wait until tomorrow.”

Katara and Sokka – those were probably the two Water Tribe kids Bumi had mentioned.

“And you’ll have to talk to Momo,” Bumi said to the Avatar, who nodded his head firmly. “You’ll need Momo alongside you, too.”

Whoever Momo was, he was clearly important. Zuko resolved to find out a little more from Bumi, as and when he could find the opportunity.

“We must all be where we are needed,” Uncle acknowledged, giving Zuko a _Look_. Uncle’s _Looks_ weren’t as bad as his Cryptic Pai Sho Smiles, but it was pretty close. The _Looks_ always made Zuko feel like he was forgetting something.

He thought about it for a moment. “Is this about where I put the wheel tile?”

Uncle had paused their game the other day and held forth for a full ten minutes on how playing the wheel tile in a line with the jasmine tile at _that_ stage of the midgame was a terrible idea.

Uncle looked as confused as Zuko felt. “Whilst I am pleased at your dedication to your studies, Nephew, I must confess ignorance.”

If Uncle didn’t remember, Zuko wasn’t about to remind him. He shook his head. “Never mind.”

“Uh,” Aang’s voice broke in. “So, if that’s everything… can I go?”

“Of course, Aang,” Bumi inclined his head. “Thank you for your time. You can _shoot_ off now!”

“Great!” The boy jumped up to his feet. “It was really nice to meet you!” He sketched a quick bow in Uncle and Zuko’s direction, and was out the door in a flash.

Zuko blinked. “He seemed – energetic.”

“May we all be young at heart,” Uncle commented. “He reminds me a lot of you, actually, Bumi.”

Bumi cackled. “I wish I was half as lively as that boy!”

Zuko suddenly got the feeling that travelling with the Avatar might be a lot more trouble than it was worth.


	2. Chapter 2

“What did I tell you, huh?” Sokka asked, enjoying the feeling of being right. It isn’t exactly like he was _unused_ to feeling right, but after the past few weeks, he liked being back on familiar ground.

Misidentify the Avatar as a Fire Nation spy? Check. Misidentify a super-deadly warrior and annoy her enough for her to beat you up? Check. _Correctly_ identify an angry jerk as an angry jerk? Boo-yah! Sokka’s instincts are back in business!

“I mean, I thought he was kind of boring,” Aang admitted. “He didn’t seem to care much about the mail chutes. And he seemed more interested in how we’re going to get to the North Pole. But I don’t know if that counts as _angry_ , you know?”

That’s fine, Sokka could deal with that. “But he was frowning at you as he said it, right?”

Aang shifted uncomfortably. “It was kinda hard to tell with that scar on his face, actually. It looked really painful.”

“Do you think the pain made him act especially _angry?_ ” Sokka wanted to know. Come on, guys, he was looking at zero-for-three here!

“That doesn’t make him a bad guy, Sokka,” Katara pointed out. “If the Fire Nation had hurt me, _I’d_ be angry, too.”

She looked kind of funny when she was saying that, so Sokka gave his sister what he thought was a very subtle comforting shoulder nudge.

“Idiot,” she huffed, but she nudged him back, so he didn’t think it had gone _too_ badly. “So, Aang, what do you think?”

The kid shrugged. “Well, that’s what I was going to ask you guys – ‘cause we’re making these decisions together, right?”

Katara smiled at him. “Right. Like a family.”

Sokka was pretty sure that Dad had led the family and they’d trusted him to make the right decisions. But he knew he wasn’t Dad – oh, _man_ , did he know – and that Katara probably wouldn’t be too happy with him if he tried to take the lead.

“We don’t know anything about this Zuko guy,” he pointed out instead. “He could be trouble.”

“You thought that about Aang, Sokka,” Katara reminded him.

He scowled. He did _not_ need reminding of that. “I’m just saying! How do we know we can trust him?”

“Well, Bumi seems to trust him,” Aang said. “And he said Oyaji sent him here from Kyoshi Island, so I think Suki would be okay with them, right?”

“Didn’t Oyaji think we were Fire Nation spies when we showed up?” Sokka remembered. “No offense, but that doesn’t exactly endorse him to me as a great judge of character.”

“Didn’t you think that I was a Fire Nation spy?” Aang asked.

“That’s not the point!” Sokka squawked (in a Manly way). He cleared his throat and tried again. “I just think we should get to know this suspicious, tall guy we don’t know anything about before we invite him along with us! What if he’s completely _incapable_ and ends up being dead weight?”

“I don’t think he’ll be dead weight,” Aang disagreed. “I thought he made good tea.”

Sokka felt a little put out for no particular reason. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“What’s the fact he’s tall got to do with anything?” Katara asked.

“Monk Tashi said that the taller you were, the more you had to rely on your breath to airbend,” Aang piped up before Sokka could explain that tall teenage boys weren’t something teenage girls had to worry about, but were something for manly teenage boys to deal with. “He always got mad at me for using tons of flips and somersaults to lead into my bending movements, because he said it made my bending more reliant on my body than my spirit.”

Katara frowned. “But you always look like you’re having a great time when you’re bending.”

Aang nodded. “I think he was just jealous because he was tall. Gyatso always said the taller you are, the harder it is for you to do cool somersaults.”

Sokka groaned. “If we can get back to the _important_ issue we were discussing?”

Katara rolled her eyes. “Sorry, oh leadership one.”

Aang giggled, and Sokka was _offended_.

“If you want, we can hang around here for a bit longer, Sokka,” Aang offered. “You and Katara can talk to Zuko and get to know him, and we can see whether we want him around.”

Katara bit her lip. Sokka thought he could understand her dilemma – after so long, for the North Pole to be so close, and now she was going to have to wait a little while longer? He bet she was _impatient_.

“It’s fine,” he decided eventually, giving Aang a nod. “It’s nice to meet new people. The last couple of new faces we’ve come across haven’t been so bad.”

He wasn’t sure if he meant Bumi, because that dude was straight-up _kooky_ , but he could still remember a pair of pretty blue eyes on Kyoshi Island.

He stifled a wistful sigh as he allowed himself to remember the way Suki had flipped him onto his back and pinned him to the ground with a knee on his throat.

Aang beamed. “Great! You guys are the best!” He hopped up and grabbed his glider staff thingy from where it was propped up on the wall. “Okay, so I’m going to go say hi to Appa, and then I think Momo wanted to go fly around in the streets for a bit, so we’re gonna go explore, so we’ll see you guys later?”

“Wait, Aang – when are you going to introduce us?” Sokka called after him, but the airbender was already out the door.

“I don’t think we’ll need another introduction,” Katara told him. “I mean, Bumi already introduced us, right? And we didn’t need an introduction to meet Bumi – well, a regular introduction, anyway,” she corrected herself. “So meeting these two should be fine. It’s not like we’re meeting royalty or anything.”

With the North Pole a little closer, she seemed a little happier. Sokka sighed and rested his chin in his hand.

“I guess the old guy didn’t seem so bad,” he allowed grudgingly.

The old guy had been pretty short, at least.

…

Zuko had been worried that Bumi would join him and Uncle for their mid-morning cup of tea, and he had been even more worried about what crazy, mad activity he would manage to coax Uncle – and by extension, him – into doing. So he’d done the sensible thing and made a run for it before Bumi arrived.

The last time Zuko had been in Omashu, King Bumi had made him and Uncle Iroh ride the mail chutes. He’d managed to get out of it on his first visit, but Bumi was adamant that he wouldn’t be getting away the second time round, and Uncle had extolled the virtues of this fun, fast and joyous mode of transport. Experience had proven Uncle to be a flat-out liar, and Zuko had _no_ desire to repeat the experience this time around.

That last visit must have been – five months ago, now? Uncle had decided to take him on a tour of the Grand Lotuses, starting with Master Jeong Jeong in the northern Earth Kingdom, and then going on to Omashu to meet with King Bumi and Master Piandao. Zuko hadn’t been sure why a mad king notorious for eccentricity and ostentatiousness was part of a secret organization – it seemed to rather go against the purpose of _secrecy_ , but even as Zuko had started to point out this point, Uncle had sneezed and trod on his foot rather painfully.

Zuko was just walking round the city streets, wondering whether he’d be able to find any stores or street vendors selling fireflakes. He wasn’t holding out much hope, though; Omashu had held out against the Fire Nation for thirty years and four separate campaigns. He doubted they’d want to be reminded of the Nation’s insistent knocking on the door.

He mentally ticked off what he needed to get; two boxes each of jasmine, ginseng, matcha and chamomile teas, for he and Uncle to split. He knew why Uncle was making him join Avatar Aang on his journey to the North Pole, but he wasn’t quite so sure as to why he was making Zuko take several boxes of tea with him. Perhaps he thought it would act as a peace offering of some kind – if Zuko turned up at the North Pole and they recognized him as the banished prince of the Fire Nation, surely ginseng would make them see that he was an ally, not an enemy.

Zuko sometimes suspected that Uncle saw the world in a slightly different light to everyone else.

He found a tea shop easily enough, and handed over three silver coins in exchange for the goods and an extra box of Wong Lo Kat, which Uncle _had not shut up about_ for two months after their last visit here.

“Do you want a bag for those?” The shop assistant asked, looking askance at how he was trying to carry everything.

Zuko let out a sigh of relief. “Please.”

As the assistant turned around to grab a small bag, Zuko spotted an elderly woman sitting at a table in the corner of the shop with a Pai Sho board set up in front of her. He _still_ didn’t like Pai Sho, exactly, and he _still_ couldn’t win three games in a row against Uncle Iroh, but he knew a few strategies and tactics, and he knew one specific maneuver that seemed to work pretty well when it came off. He mumbled his thanks as the shop assistant helped him organize the tea boxes neatly in the bag, and once he’d settled them nicely, he moved over to the woman.

“May I have this game?” He asked tentatively.

The lady looked him up and down. “The guest has the first move.” Her voice was dry.

He smiled politely and sat down, wasting no time in setting one particular tile in the center of the board. The old lady’s face gave nothing away.

“I see you favor the white lotus gambit,” she observed. “Not many still cling to the ancient ways.”

She cupped her hands in a gesture that Zuko had _never_ quite been able to replicate. Eventually, after months of shaking his head in a vaguely disappointed fashion, Uncle had just taken pity on him and told him to concentrate on not messing up the passwords.

“Those who do can always find a friend,” he said carefully.

It seemed to be enough for the old woman. “Then let us play.”

After the number of times Uncle, Master Piandao, King Bumi and even Master Jeong Jeong had drilled him, Zuko knew the routine in his sleep. Rose tile, boat tile, chrysanthemum tile, knotgrass tile, jasmine tile, wheel tile. They played for a few minutes, and Zuko assumed at first that they were playing slowly so as to throw the shop assistant off the scent. But when he realized that the assistant was leaning against the frame of the shop entrance, keeping a casual eye on what’s going on outside, he felt a lot more confident.

Eventually, they were left looking at a board with a very familiar set of tiles on it.

“Welcome, brother,” the old lady said with a twinkle in her eye. “The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets.”

Zuko nodded. “I’m here to accompany the Avatar through the Earth Kingdom. You can call me Lee.”

The old lady inclined her head in return. “My name is Qimei; my grandson is Jié. So the rumors are true?” She tapped on the wheel tile thoughtfully. “No doubt he seeks a waterbending master. How can we in Omashu help you with that?”

“What do we need to look out for in the Earth Kingdom?” Zuko asked.

“I understand that once the Fire Lord learnt of the Avatar’s return, Commander Zhao was tasked with capturing the Avatar,” Qimei told him. “He commands a blockade on the Mo Ce Sea, but sails with fairly free authority.”

Zuko’s heart sank. That wasn’t good news. He’d had the displeasure of dealing with Zhao before, and he was the kind of man that even Uncle didn’t have a good word to say about. “Any others?”

“The Rough Rhinos are operating in the western Earth Kingdom,” Qimei recited. “There are also the Yuyan Archers in the north.”

Zuko knew the names; Rough Rhinos could be a bit tricky, but he doubted they’d cross paths, and he didn’t plan on taking Avatar Aang anywhere _near_ Pohuai Stronghold. Zhao was their biggest worry, then.

He nods slowly and stands to his feet. “Thank you for your help.”

“Wait!” Jié hurried to press a silver coin back into his hand. “For your journey. It’s not much, but – for the Avatar.”

Zuko took it and bowed low to Qimei and Jié, as common courtesy dictated. “Thank you for your kindness, and your discretion.”

“Good luck on your journey, Lee,” Qimei responded. “Guide the Avatar well.”

Zuko didn’t believe in luck, but he knew a lot about the journey. If he could be half as good a guide as Uncle, he thought they’d be okay.

…

As the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe, Katara knew that water followed the path of least resistance. Sometimes you had to be patient to reach your goal.

But for all the stars in Tui’s night sky, she had been waiting to learn waterbending for fourteen _years!_

 _Fourteen years_ , she sighed to herself, looking at Appa as he happily chewed through a haybale. She resisted the urge to leap onto the sky bison’s back and set off for the North Pole herself; after so long, the opportunity to learn from a master was so close that she could almost reach out and _touch_ it – but Aang had wanted to stay in Omashu and chat with some grumpy kid and his weird uncle!

Katara took a moment longer to bemoan how patience only ever seemed to be something she learnt through disappointed hopes before she refocused. She’d wandered through the palace hallways from the rooms she and the boys had been set up in, and now she was standing in front of a wooden door to the room she’d been told the two travelers were set up in.

She’d let Sokka know she was going to see Aang’s prospective new travelling friend, and he’d just let out a snore in reply.

 _Might as well get it over with_ , she decided as she knocked on the door. The sooner she could meet this Zuko guy, the sooner they could move on from Omashu.

She heard shuffling footsteps coming from the other side of the door, and as the door swung open, Katara was met with an elderly man who must have been even shorter than her.

“Ah,” he smiled. “You must be Miss Katara. My name is Iroh.”

Gran-Gran hadn’t raised Katara without manners, so she nodded her head. “Yep. That’s me.” She risked a quick wave in case the nod hadn’t been polite enough. “Hi, Master Iroh. Um – is Zuko with you?”

“I am afraid my nephew is not present right now,” Iroh replied, and to his credit he _did_ look a little apologetic. “He has taken the opportunity to run some errands.”

“Oh.” Katara felt a momentary stab of disappointment. “Well – do you know when he’ll be back?”

“Would you care to join me for some tea?” Iroh asked courteously, stepping to the side and gesturing to the room. “Although it appears that my nephew has forsaken me today, he usually joins me for my mid-morning tea. Perhaps he will return, and you will be able to enjoy a refreshing drink with us?”

For a moment, Katara wondered if she should make her excuses and go and find the younger boy. She’d come looking for the nephew, after all. Still, the old man seemed nice enough, and she wasn’t going to turn down a cup of tea. “Well, if it’s not too much bother.”

“Not at all!” Iroh smiled as they sat down. “Sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life’s true delights.”

“I don’t think I’ve got much experience with tea,” Katara confessed. “I quite like ginger, but my Gran-Gran always preferred jasmine.”

Somehow, that seemed to make the old man even more cheerful. “Jasmine is a personal favorite of mine! Your grandmother sounds like a woman of excellent taste and wisdom, Miss Katara.”

She couldn’t help but smile. Anyone who thinks highly of her grandmother seemed sensible and likeable enough to Katara. “Whenever she got mad at Sokka, she always reminded him that she had more bright ideas in a day than he’d had since the last winter.”

“For a while, my nephew was similarly resistant to taking advice from his elders,” Iroh agreed, pouring a cup of tea for her, and then one for himself. “But in time, he learnt to heed my counsel, and I flatter myself to think him a better man for it.”

“Oh,” Katara racked her brains for something to say. “Is he a fan of jasmine, too?”

Iroh shook his head. “My nephew is a fine young man,” he replied with a mournful air. “But this is one of his few failings, I must admit.”

“Maybe he’ll learn in time,” Katara consoled him, hiding a smile. “I remember when I was little, I hated sea prunes. Sometimes you have to get used to something before you learn to like it.”

“Patience is a virtue,” Iroh agreed. Ugh, Katara was _tired_ of hearing that from _herself_ , let alone from anyone else. “But – forgive me, Miss Katara,” Iroh continued, and she tried to pay attention. “You mentioned sea prunes… I understand that you are from the Southern Water Tribe?”

“Yes,” Katara nodded. “Sokka and I were the oldest kids in our village.

Iroh looked at her over the rim of his cup. “I imagine that is a position of great responsibility.”

“It is,” Katara agreed proudly. “I’m usually the one who helps take care of the younger kids, and I do a lot of the sewing and the cooking – some of the older women struggle a bit with the needlework, with their hands. Sokka does a lot of the hunting for the village.”

“I have not yet had the pleasure of sharing a cup of tea with Master Sokka,” Iroh said. “If I wished to make a good impression on him, what would you recommend we discuss?”

Katara smiled at the thought of Sokka sitting down to a nice cup of tea. “You could always talk about where you’ve been,” she thought out loud. “I think he liked visiting Kyoshi Island – though that might be more to do with the people than the place.”

She stifled a giggle as she remembered how Sokka had followed Suki around like a lost polar bear dog puppy.

“The warriors of Kyoshi are renowned throughout the Earth Kingdom,” Iroh inclined his head. “Does Master Sokka share their fighting spirit?”

“He’s the best warrior in our village,” she acknowledged her brother’s skill, but her smile soon dimmed. “Although I guess that’s kind of tricky to tell, because all the men are off fighting the Fire Nation.”

Iroh nodded slowly. “It is a hard thing, to leave behind the people we love,” he said softly. “But they do not leave us, so long as we love them.”

Katara wasn’t sure if he was talking about his nephew, but she didn’t think prying would be very polite. Still, she couldn’t help but think of her Dad, somewhere out there on the south seas.

“Yes,” she agreed eventually. “Sometimes you have to be brave, but love helps you be strong.”

She reached up and touched her mother’s necklace. Iroh watched the motion with sad eyes.

“Will you tell me more about your home, Miss Katara?” He asked gently.

With an effort, Katara pulled herself back together. “Well, there’s not a lot to say – we don’t get many visitors. The last person to visit was Aang, I guess, but if you like penguin-sledding, he _really_ enjoyed that –”

She broke off as the door opened.

“Uncle, you _need_ to tell Bumi to stop putting up wanted posters of the Blue Spirit,” a young man grumbled as he shut the door behind him. “It’s bad enough that half the Earth Kingdom thinks he’s –”

He stopped as he turned around to see Katara kneeling down in the middle of the room. “Um.”

Katara felt slightly like she was intruding on his mid-morning tea with Iroh, so she raised a hand and tried to make it slightly less awkward.

“Hello. Katara here.”


	3. Chapter 3

Iroh was certain that he had taught Zuko better than this. But no, he thought disapprovingly, his nephew _was_ simply standing there looking vaguely confused.

“Hello,” he said in response to Miss Katara’s very polite welcome. “Zuko here.”

Iroh’s inner spirit heaved a deep spiritual sigh and resigned itself, yet again, to having to walk his nephew through the process of talking to a pretty girl.

“Miss Katara kindly offered to join me for mid-morning tea, Nephew,” he explained, neatly achieving the delicate task of introducing his new friend and establishing her as a very nice young lady who appreciated the finer things in life. “She is one of Avatar Aang’s close friends, and boasts the distinction of being a waterbender – from the Southern Water Tribe, no less!”

“Um,” Zuko said, glancing from Iroh to Miss Katara. “Nice to meet you. Uncle, I got your teas.”

Iroh was _certain_ that he had taught Zuko better than this. There was a time and a place for all things! “Now is hardly the time to speak of tea, Nephew – we have a guest present.”

“Uncle, you literally never shut up about –” Zuko must have accepted the wisdom of Iroh’s words, because he broke off and muttered something to himself. “Fine, alright. Uh, Miss Katara. Are you having a good morning?”

That was a bit better. Iroh nodded in satisfaction. Zuko would never make a sparkling conversationalist, but at least he knew the appropriate topics, and one could never go wrong with tea. Except perhaps assam, but Iroh was in polite company; he would not mention that drink of Koh’s.

“It’s been very nice, thank you,” the young lady replied with a smile. “Master Iroh is very good company.”

“Please, Miss Katara,” Iroh offered. “Call me Uncle.”

Zuko muttered something under his breath, but Iroh couldn’t imagine why his nephew would be aggrieved at him making friends with the Avatar’s companions. It would only make Zuko’s life easier, after all.

“Alright, then,” Katara said happily. “Uncle’s very good company, Zuko.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Zuko mumbled. “I was actually hoping to talk to him for a minute or two, if I could – Uncle?”

“Nephew,” Iroh chastised him. “Miss Katara was just telling me of the South Pole, which she has left behind for the Avatar. Do not be so rude as to interrupt her when she speaks of her home.”

Zuko ducked his head, and it took a moment before Iroh realized his mistake. “I’m sorry, Nephew – I did not mean to –”

“It’s fine, Uncle,” Zuko said quickly. “Sorry, Katara. I, um – I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Katara looked a little puzzled as her eyes flicked between them. “Well, I was just saying that when we found Aang and took him back to the village, he really liked going for sled rides with the otter penguins. I’d never actually done it before he showed me what it was like.”

Iroh chuckled along with her. His tea had gone cold, and he would normally have reheated it by now – but after the second (or was it the fifth?) time Zuko had caught him doing that in an Earth Kingdom village on their travels, he had come to realize that it was perhaps not the wisest thing to do.

Cold tea was not a pleasant fate, but it was rather better than cold company.

“And Sokka was _furious_ when Aang almost hit him with a penguin,” she continued, still giggling with a hand held over her mouth. “He chased him around the village for about an hour, yelling about how you’re not supposed to ruin good meat by overusing it before you eat it.”

“Your brother seems like a young man with a passion for life,” Iroh offered. “For an old man who took many years to learn to appreciate the meaningful things, it is heartening to hear.”

It was also good to hear for an old man whose relationship with his own brother was slightly more than strained, Iroh thought wryly to himself. It was good to be reminded that family could love and be loved in turn.

“Sokka’s definitely got a passion for meat,” Katara allowed. “But I’m not sure about _life_. We’ve never been beyond the South Pole before – I think we’ve got to _see_ life before we can appreciate it, you know?”

“Your tribe must be proud of you,” Zuko offered quietly. “To send you on your way.”

Iroh looked at him, but Zuko was looking intently at Katara as she shared stories of her home. It was over two and a half years since Zuko had been banished, Iroh remembered sadly.

Miss Katara was, however, a balm to their troubled spirits. “Gran-Gran was pretty unhappy with it at first, but I think she realized how important it was for Aang to reach the North Pole. And me, too, I guess,” she added, almost as an afterthought. “But it’s kind of taking a while longer than I thought it would.”

“To test oneself beyond the land of one’s birth is an admirable thing,” Iroh said, hoping that his nephew heard the unspoken praise in his words. “And you have found yourself with the Avatar as a travelling companion! For your first journey, it is quite the adventure.”

“I don’t know if they’re all going to be like this,” Katara agreed.

“On my first journey to the Chuje Islands, I was accompanied by a crococat named Matcha and an extremely friendly sparrowkeet named Zedong.”

Katara grinned. “I think Aang and Sokka are probably better company than Matcha and Zedong.”

“You are probably correct,” Iroh acknowledged ruefully. “Matcha gave me quite the swipe on my ankle when I accidentally trod on her tail, and then spent the next week of our voyage determinedly avoiding me.”

Katara offered her sympathy, which Iroh greatly appreciated; his nephew had found the tale rather amusing when Iroh had recounted it for him. Iroh had taken great pleasure in soundly trouncing Zuko at Pai Sho later that night.

“I think Aang would like Zedong,” Katara said. “He’s really good with animals. But I think Matcha and Sokka would get on well together.”

“Perhaps,” Iroh mused. “My nephew often puts me in mind of Matcha, truth be told. She was a grumpy thing, but when I… found myself missing my loved ones, she would often come and find me, and wind herself round my ankles.”

Iroh smiled at the memory of the little beige crococat, who had always had the quietest _miaow_.

“Thanks, Uncle,” Zuko said. “It’s great to hear that I remind you of a grumpy cat.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Miss Katara disagreed politely. “It’s nice that he’s… _purr-oud_ of you.”

She smiled widely at her own joke, and Iroh immediately resolved to teach Zuko how to comb his hair into a style that had won Iroh quite a few admirers in his youth.

…

Zuko had been in many unpleasant situations over the course of the past three years. Even before that, he had grown used to members of his family humiliating him or making his life generally less-than-pleasant. Uncle Iroh was merely continuing a time-honored tradition.

Zuko was still extremely uncomfortable with how Uncle seemed intent on embarrassing him, though.

“Yes, my nephew is… a complicated boy,” Uncle continued merrily, despite all Zuko’s best scowls, stares, and glares. “But I am so proud of the man he is becoming that I am willing to overlook his faults – even his odd dislike for jasmine tea!”

Katara laughed along with him. “If that’s the worst thing you can share about Zuko, Uncle, I’m pretty sure we’ll be okay.”

“It’s definitely the worst,” Zuko cut in flatly. “That’s _absolutely_ the worst thing Uncle can or will ever share about me. _Isn’t it, Uncle?_ ”

“The folly of youth,” Uncle sighed dramatically. “But I am pleased to hear, and I am sure that my nephew would agree, that you have rather excellent taste in tea, Miss Katara.”

Katara smiled at her cup. “It tastes just like Gran-Gran used to make it.”

Lu Ten had complained just as much about jasmine as Zuko did, but he had still learnt to make a good cup, or so Uncle always said. Zuko’s cousin had been his biggest hero, but not even Lu Ten could make a ten-year-old Zuko try jasmine.

“Some things can transcend the boundaries of nations,” Uncle was saying. “A good cup of tea does more for friendships than many gold pieces.”

“We didn’t bring any tea with us when we left home,” Katara admitted. “But I think we’re doing okay so far. I guess you could say we’re all getting oolong.”

Zuko groaned as he realized why Uncle had seemed so adamant that he go out and buy more tea than he knew what to do with. It was because the Avatar had run out of jasmine.

Uncle’s priorities all wrapped up nice and neatly, he thought to himself.

Uncle certainly looked delighted with his new friend’s oh-so-witty comment. “Oh, _very_ good, Miss Katara – I don’t think I’ve heard that one before!”

Katara looked a little shy at his praise. “Sokka’s usually the funny one – I just heard that one from Gran-Gran.”

“Your grandmother sounds like a wonderful woman,” Uncle complimented her. “A wonderful woman with a sense of humor and a discerning palate.”

“Two things you really need in the world,” the waterbending girl agreed.

 _Agni’s sake,_ Zuko thought to himself. At least Uncle had taught him how to make green tea – he’d even pronounced it _passable_ , which was probably the best Zuko could hope for – and he’d been learning how to infuse it with jasmine over the past few months. Uncle had seemed to think it was the final lesson he needed to learn before joining the Avatar, and Zuko had absolutely no doubts that Uncle was going to be very smug about this.

“Have you ever played Pai Sho, Miss Katara?” Uncle asked, apropos of nothing. Zuko absently thought that he might as well be one of his boxes of tea. At least then he stood a chance of being involved in this conversation at some point, as Uncle would no doubt start on a new box sooner or later.

Katara admitted that she was in fact unfamiliar with the rules of the game, and Uncle wasted no time in setting up a board and leading her through the finer points. Katara seemed especially interested in the boat tile.

“So it’s a game based on the four elements?” She asked, holding one of the tiles up and examining it with interest.

“It is indeed,” Uncle replied. His voice had settled into the familiar cadence of the teacher. Zuko had settled into the familiar boredom he had felt every time Uncle had repeated what he’d learnt for the first time from a Pai Sho textbook aged seven. “The boat tile for the Water Tribes; the rock for the Earth Kingdom; the knotweed for the Fire Nation, and the wheel for the children of Air.”

Katara looked at the knotweed tile with an expression of distaste. “There are probably a lot more knotweed tiles in the game than wheel tiles, these days.”

Zuko remembered a time when he would have been very happy to use nothing but knotweed tiles in his play. He liked to think he’d learnt a lot in the last few years; even if Uncle and Jeong Jeong would beg to differ.

“In Pai Sho, you must be willing to use all the means at your disposal,” Uncle told her serenely. “And it is by using them together, to create harmonies where once there seemed only disorder, that you might achieve victory.”

Katara seemed unconvinced, and when Uncle suggested they play a quick game, she demonstrated a marked preference for the boat tiles. Inevitably, Uncle ended up winning, but Zuko noted with some discontent that he had _definitely_ gone easier on her than he did on Zuko the first few times they played on his ship.

“A good game, Miss Katara,” Uncle praised her, although Zuko was pretty sure he could have beaten her inside ten moves. “Would you care to play my nephew?”

Zuko was so surprised to be involved in the conversation again, his chin slipped out of his hand as he started. “Uncle?”

Katara shook her head. “That’s okay, Iroh – I should probably get going.”

Zuko wasn’t sure if he was supposed to feel relieved or offended. He wasn’t _that_ bad a Pai Sho partner!

“Sokka will be wondering where I’ve got to, and Aang will probably have gotten himself into mischief. Or Momo,” she added, shaking her head with a fond smile.

There was that Momo person again, Zuko noted. He’d have to keep an eye out for this person who seemed to hold such influence over the Avatar.

If Uncle was disappointed, he hid it well. “Well, Miss Katara, if you must go, we mustn’t keep you.” He smiled at his new best friend. “It has been lovely to meet you!”

“And you,” Katara inclined her head and bobbed a little curtsey. “Uncle,” she added with a sly grin that made the old man beam.

Uncle didn’t rise to bow to her, but he did shoot Zuko _A Look_. “Nephew, my old bones are weary today. Will you walk Miss Katara to her room in my place?”

Zuko _had_ wanted to talk to Uncle about how he had seen an awful lot of wanted posters for the Blue Spirit around Omashu, but he couldn’t very well give that excuse right in front of Katara. His mother had always made it very clear that he should be respectful and polite of young ladies, especially guests. “Of course, Uncle.”

He turned to Katara and tried to give her a friendly, open smile. “Shall we?”

“Sure,” she gave him a quick smile before waving at Uncle. “It was really nice to meet you, Iroh!”

“And you, Miss Katara,” Uncle said cheerily. “Take good care of my nephew, will you? I am certain he will take good care of you!”

Zuko rolled his eyes so hard that he almost walked into the doorframe.

…

Aang had been hoping that Bumi had invited him to the throne room so they try out some more cool stunts on the mail chutes, but it turned out he’d just wanted to talk. It wasn’t quite the activity Aang would have picked for their last morning together, but at least they had fruit pies.

“Have you tried the orange and mango pie?” He asked Bumi through a mouthful of filling.

“Only every day!” Bumi nodded enthusiastically. It was just like old times, when he and Bumi and Kuzon had hung out in Omashu and had fun. Bumi had always teased Kuzon about how much effort he put into his outfits, and Kuzon had always teased Bumi about how _little_ effort he put into his outfits. Neither of them had made too much fun of Aang’s outfits, because he was a monk and he only had a few identical sets of the same set of robes, but they _had_ wondered a few times whether he could get a green-and-red set of robes instead of three lots of the same yellow-and-orange set.

“Do you remember when Kuzon tried to heat his moon peach pie up with his firebending, but he managed to burn the pastry _and_ make the filling super-hot?” He asked, smiling at the memory. “His face was _hilarious_ when he took the first bite!”

Bumi giggled along with him. “And he kept trying to shift the pie around in his mouth instead of spitting it out!”

“I can’t believe he threw up on the mail chutes,” Aang laughed. Kuzon had stumbled out of the cart and immediately collapsed onto the ground in a heap, with his feet sticking up in the air and his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he gasped for air. His carefully-styled hairstyle had been completely changed by the wind and the high speeds, and now it was all over the place!

When Aang had teased him about how much effort he had put into his hair, Kuzon had just given him a smile and assured him that it was the hot style in the Fire Nation. Aang wondered what the hot style was now.

“I can’t believe it was a hundred years ago,” he added softly.

“A lot has changed in these hundred years, Aang,” Bumi told him gently. “But like I said, it’s good to see that you haven’t changed a bit.”

“But you’ve changed so much!” Aang said, before realizing that that might have been a bit rude. “I mean, uh… you’re royalty now?”

“Oh, I was always royalty,” Bumi replied dismissively. “I just pretended I wasn’t so you’d be my friend.”

“What?” Aang couldn’t believe it. “Why wouldn’t I have been your friend if I knew you were going to be king one day?”

“Aang,” Bumi began, before pausing and tossing Momo a slice of lychee berry pie. Momo growled approvingly and began cramming it into his mouth.

“You’ll find that a lot of people will care more about you as the Avatar than about you as a person,” Bumi continued. “I wanted friends who would care about me as Bumi, not me as the Prince of Omashu.”

Aang nodded glumly. “When I found out I was the Avatar, a lot of the guys at the Southern Air Temple started treating me differently.”

“And that was unfair of them, Aang,” Bumi said firmly. “It’s good to see that your friends from the Water Tribe treat you as their friend.”

Aang smiled and felt a lot better. Katara never made him feel like she didn’t want him around because he was the Avatar, or that she didn’t want to talk to him because he was the Avatar. In fact, sometimes he thought she was actually _more_ interested in talking to him because he was the Avatar! It was a lot better than being told he couldn’t play airball with the other monks, that was for sure.

And Sokka was pretty cool too, even if he could be a bit weird about stuff sometimes. He’d been a bit weird about moving on from Kyoshi Island – he’d _really_ wanted to stay there for a bit longer – but he’d also been really supportive when Aang said he wanted to see what was happening in Omashu.

“And it’s good to see that you see them as your friends,” Bumi continued. “You’re quite fortunate to have such good friends – and Momo, too!”

“And now there’s Zuko, too,” Aang added. He still wasn’t sure what he thought about the strange boy with a scar. He’d made good tea, but he’d also been pretty quiet and let his uncle do most of the talking when Aang was introduced to them last night.

Bumi nodded. “I’ve known Zuko’s uncle for a long time, Aang. They’re both good people. Zuko’s a little serious, and he isn’t very fun, but he’s a good boy, and he’ll look out for you.”

Aang hoped that Zuko would be at least a _little_ fun. “He seemed to care a lot about the fact that I’m the Avatar.”

“He does,” Bumi agreed. “For Zuko, the Avatar is a very important person. But he knows that _what_ you are is not as important as _who_ you are. I hope you’ll remember that too, Aang.”

“Of course I will.” Aang wasn’t sure why Bumi thought he _wouldn’t_. “Remember Kuzon? He didn’t care that I was the Avatar, the last time I saw him. And he was still one of my best friends, even though he was a firebender. Just because he was a firebender doesn’t mean he’s suddenly not my friend – even though Katara and Sokka probably wouldn’t like him,” he acknowledged with a sigh.

“I’m glad to hear it!” Bumi gave him a wide, toothy grin. “And that reminds me, in fact – there was something important I had to say to you before you set off tomorrow.”

Maybe Bumi was going to say that they _were_ planning on going on the mail chutes one last time! “Okay,” Aang nodded, trying not to look _too_ excited.

Bumi cleared his throat and gave Aang a very serious look. “The Dark Water Spirit is a friend to the Avatar.” Then, he gave Aang a look that somehow managed to be both impressively cryptic and mysteriously knowledgeable.

Aang waited for a few moments, but that seemed to be all that Bumi had to say. He frowned. “Is that… a really important spirit for the North Pole?”

“Oh, not necessarily for the North Pole,” Bumi waved his hand. “But I’m sure you can ask your friend Zuko about it. You can trust him, after all.”

Aang had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask _Bumi_ , but if he knew one thing, it was that his friend – who was the King of Omashu, what a crazy turnaround! – was a mad genius. He would just have to trust that Bumi knew what he was talking about and what he was doing.

He nodded. “Okay, Bumi.”

Bumi smiled. “Excellent. Now – how about one last ride down the mail chutes?”

Aang _knew_ his friend knew what he was talking about!


	4. Chapter 4

“Fire is life,” Iroh intoned. “It is your drive. It is your purpose. It is your passion. Breathe in, Prince Zuko.”

The half-dozen candles sitting between Iroh and his nephew glowed white as they inhaled.

“And hold, Nephew – two, three, four. And out – two, three, four…”

Zuko looked almost peaceful in the dawn light coming in from the eastern window. But there was still the slight tension in his body; his nephew was like a coiled tigerdillo, ready to move at a moment’s notice.

“Remember your goal,” Iroh instructed him. “Remember your destiny.”

The slight furrow in Zuko’s brow eased as he breathed. Iroh took the opportunity to indulge himself and conjure a small ball of fire, letting the sparks dance around his fingers. He let it roll across his fingers before batting it back and forth across his lap.

Zuko didn’t often appreciate Iroh’s attempts at lightening up their training – when they practiced his fine control, he much preferred to be given targets and goals to achieve. His nephew had always been a driven boy.

But Iroh loved to see his fire dance. Fire could be warm and joyful, a thing of beauty. So often, it was a thing to be feared and hated; Iroh took every opportunity he could to remind himself that fire could be beautiful.

“Breathe in – two, three, four.”

Iroh allowed a little spark to float away from him, towards the teapot. Even at his advanced age, he could still improve; controlling the heat and trying to steep the tea from a distance was something he should have started practicing a long time ago!

“Firebending comes from the breath,” Iroh reminded his nephew calmly.

“Not the muscle,” Zuko mumbled.

“Indeed,” Iroh felt a great deal of pride in his nephew. Since learning that lesson, Zuko had showed extraordinary improvement. “Fire does not come from rage, nor from anger. Not from hate, nor from pain. Fire is life.”

Zuko opened his golden eyes, and held one hand up over the candles. He concentrated, and three of the candles dimmed. The other three brightened. In time with his even breathing, he alternated between growing and dimming the flames, letting them settle into a rhythm.

“Very good, Nephew,” Iroh nodded approvingly. The tea should have come to a pleasant brew by now. “That will do for today.”

Zuko let out a deep sigh and waved his hand, and the candles winked out. All that was left was a few wisps of smoke.

“Your control over individual flames is much improved,” Iroh complimented him. “You should continue to practice your control with these exercises over the coming months.”

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to, Uncle,” Zuko replied seriously. Oh, always so serious, his nephew! “I don’t think the Avatar will be impressed to find out I’m a firebender.”

“Nonsense,” Iroh dismissed his concerns. “King Bumi has already agreed to speak to Avatar Aang about the important details on our behalf; the Avatar will know that you are a firebender, and he will be glad to have you along.”

Zuko nodded slowly. “Do you think Katara and Sokka will be okay with it?”

In truth, Iroh wasn’t sure about Master Sokka; he had only met Miss Katara, after all. But for all that she had made no secret of her dislike for the knotweed tile and her marked preference for the boat, she did not strike him as a hateful girl.

“Perhaps it would be better to err on the side of caution, Nephew,” he advised as he poured two cups of jasmine tea. “Do not be ostentatious; bend sparingly, and do not bend suddenly.”

“Okay, Uncle.” Zuko accepted his cup with a quiet _thanks_. They sat there for a little while, content with the light of the rising sun through the windows, the warmth of their hot drinks, and the comfort of family.

“It is good that you are concerned not only for Avatar Aang, but for his companions as well, Nephew.”

Zuko tried to give an unaffected shrug, but Iroh could tell that he was embarrassed. “Got to get along with everyone. I know I’m not… always easy to get along with.”

“Perhaps not,” Iroh acknowledged, because Zuko appreciated honesty. “But there are always ways of making it easier. You must remember to help where you can, and to be a blessing, not a burden.”

“How do I do that, Uncle?” Zuko asked bluntly. “I doubt I’ll earn my keep simply by making the tea.”

“You know that the people of the Water Tribe have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything,” Iroh reminded him of his lessons. “You would help Master Sokka by being there for him, as a support and a confidant. He is far from home, and tasked with protecting his beloved sister in a strange land. Share your wisdom with him, Prince Zuko, and together you will keep your charges from harm.”

Zuko nodded. “I’ll do my best, Uncle. It’s just –” he hesitated for a moment, before continuing. “Katara didn’t seem much like Azula.”

“Miss Katara appears to have a kind heart and a compassionate spirit,” Iroh agreed. “It is greatly to her credit. But you must remember, Nephew, that still waters run deep. And she is a waterbender – untrained, perhaps, but not undeterred.”

“She’s untrained?” Zuko furrowed his brow. “I thought the Fire Nation had found the last of the Southern waterbenders.”

“It appears they were mistaken,” Iroh surmised, feeling a small, shameful sense of relief. For all his nation’s sins, this was one that they had been spared from reckoning. “But with no one to teach her, Miss Katara is heading north. Forgive me, Nephew, but you know what it is to desire to bend.”

Zuko said nothing, but looked hard into his tea.

“Encourage her, Prince Zuko,” Iroh advised him gently. “And, as you may remember; we spoke yesterday of how she has left her home behind to accompany the Avatar. I recognize that, in some ways, her situation is different to yours. But I have no doubt that she will miss her home all the same, much as you do. As you and I have spoken of our homeland to remind ourselves of our love for our Nation, perhaps you might listen as she speaks of hers.”

Zuko continued to stare into his tea, and Iroh felt another surge of sorrowful love for his boy.

“Your cooking has come on these past few months,” he offered. “And when I have been homesick for our nation, a taste of home has always warmed my spirit. However, perhaps Miss Katara would prefer it if she were allowed free reign.”

Iroh thought he was being rather tactful here, but Zuko looked a little put out all the same. “I thought you said you liked my _chahan_.”

“To an old man who misses the Fire Nation, your _chahan_ has been much appreciated,” Iroh agreed. “But to a young lady who misses her land of snow and ice, it is perhaps not ideal. Perhaps you might help Miss Katara by helping her cook the foods of her home. Stewed sea prunes, perhaps?”

Far from looking appeased by Iroh’s wise words, Zuko somehow looked even _more_ put out at the prospect of stewed sea prunes.

…

When Sokka had left Kyoshi Island, he’d been pretty sad about it. He’d thought Suki might have been a little sad about it too, because she had given him a _long_ hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. He would have been very okay with it being a _long_ kiss on the cheek, too, but he wasn’t complaining.

He wasn’t complaining about the way Omashu was sending them on their way this time, either. That kooky King Bumi guy had set them up with a whole bag of fruits, pies, sticky buns, pastries and nuts, and Sokka had wasted no time in diving in and finding the biggest raspberry and lychee nut pastry he could find. So whilst he was waiting for this Zuko guy to turn up, he was munching happily on a pastry. Things could be worse.

When Zuko eventually arrived, Sokka was pretty sure he _still_ looked kind of angry. Maybe it was the scar, like Katara had said, but maybe it was the scowl on his face. But he looked slightly less angry when his old uncle put his hand on his shoulder. Then it was back to angry when the old uncle asked him if he’d remembered his tea.

“I’ve got all my teas, Uncle,” he’d grumbled.

“I only ask so you won’t forget, Nephew.”

“I won’t forget my training, Uncle. That’s the main thing.”

Uncle had nodded, but then he’d hesitated. Sokka thought he knew what he was thinking. Dad had given Sokka a hug before he’d gone off to war, but Zuko didn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d appreciate a hug. “From the breath. And only when necessary.”

“I know, Uncle.”

“And remember that the knotweed tile is not always the most effective.”

“I know, Uncle,” Zuko repeated, but he seemed a bit more irritated this time. This must have been that Pai Sho game the old guy had shown Katara. If that was the case, Sokka could empathize with Zuko’s frustration.

 _Of course_ the boat tile represented the Water Tribes, Katara, but it wasn’t because of some mumbo-jumbo about how the boat tile turned your opponent’s strength against them. It was because it was a _boat_.

“And remember…” The old uncle guy hesitated. “Remember your destiny.”

“I will, Uncle. I won’t forget who I am.”

“Remember what inspires you, Nephew.”

“And what I aspire to,” Zuko said. “I know, Uncle.”

For a moment, it looked to Sokka like the grumpy kid was actually going to hug the old guy. But then he turned around and climbed up onto Appa with surprising ease (it had taken Sokka thirty seconds of puffing and panting, the first time he’d tried it). Then, he stowed his bag and his sword along with their pile of stuff, and settled in.

“Let’s go,” he said grumpily. Dare Sokka say _angrily?_

His disposition didn’t seem to improve when a certain annoying winged lemur ran over and settled in his lap. If anything, he seemed to become even more dubious.

“What’s this?”

At least they’d be able to bond over hating Momo, Sokka thought. “Momo.”

“Momo?” Zuko repeated.

“Momo,” Sokka confirmed.

Zuko just scowled. Sokka figured he should probably be getting used to that.

King Bumi had come to wave them off as well. “Safe travels, Aang! Safe travels, Momo and co!”

“Thanks, Bumi!” Aang waved back. “Good luck with the mail chutes!”

“May good fortune speed your journey, Avatar Aang,” the old uncle dude said pleasantly. “And may good company bless your way.”

“Aw,” Aang seemed really pleased with that one. “Thanks, Iroh!”

“You’ll probably want to stand a bit further back,” Sokka advised them hastily. “When Appa leaves, it can get a bit windy.”

He’d learnt that at the South Pole when Aang had demonstrated that Appa really _could_ fly. One moment he’d been standing there in doubt, the next he’d found himself buried under what had been a proud watchtower up until two seconds ago.

Iroh took the hint, but Bumi just locked himself into the earth with his earthbending and cackled. Kind of kooky, but whatever, Sokka wasn’t about to judge.

With a low growl and a swing of his tail, Appa rose into the air, and _yeah, Sokka wasn’t gonna be getting used to that any time soon_.

Katara was waving goodbye, and Bumi and Iroh kept waving back, but Zuko was just sitting in Appa’s saddle with his arms folded. Sokka kept watching out behind them until Omashu faded into the distance and it was just the four of them. Well, four of them, plus Appa and Momo.

He cleared his throat and reached out an arm to Zuko in the traditional gesture of the Southern Water Tribe. “Sokka.”

Zuko just looked at it for a moment before taking his hand and shaking it. Weird. Maybe it was an Earth Kingdom greeting? “Zuko.”

They had a bit of an awkward silence, because, you know, what were you meant to say to someone you’d just met and were now travelling with on the Avatar’s sky bison? As far as Sokka knew, there weren’t many guides to that sort of conversation.

“How old are you, Zuko?” Katara asked, probably trying to fill the silence. “Sokka’s fifteen and a half.”

Zuko looked a bit surprised at the question; Sokka, meanwhile, felt a little bit miffed that Katara was just casually throwing his age out there. Not to mention, he was fifteen and _eight months_.

“I’m sixteen next month,” Zuko replied, because _of course_ he was. Well, even if he was nearly sixteen, Sokka could see that he still didn’t need to shave.

“Katara only turned fourteen a few months ago,” he said. “So she’s still just a kid.”

Katara scowled at him and folded her arms. “I’m not _just a kid_ , Sokka – I’ve been doing the work in the village for ages now! I’m fourteen and a half,” she added to Zuko, still glaring at Sokka defensively.

Zuko coughed. “My, uh, sister’s fourteen too. I don’t think she’s just a kid. She’s capable.”

“You’ve got a sister?” Sokka asked, whilst Katara looked a little appeased. “What’s she like?”

Zuko ducked his head. “I’m not sure. I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Why not?” Katara asked.

“It’s complicated,” Zuko mumbled.

Sokka wasn’t sure about _complicated_. “How long’s it been since you’ve seen her?”

Zuko thought for a moment. “Just over two and a half years,” he said eventually. He shifted to cross his legs and hunch over a little bit.

“That’s a long time,” Sokka observed. “What’ve you been doing for two and a half years?”

Zuko looked a little uncomfortable – he probably wasn’t used to tons of questions. The old uncle guy looked more like the kind of guy who rambled on for a while and did all the talking himself. “My Uncle and I were on a ship. We had to leave home, so, uh – yeah.”

“How come you had to leave –” Sokka began, but Katara shot him a _glare_ , so he shut up. Katara had this innate need to be nice to people, he thought exasperatedly to himself. Nice to _everyone_ except her older brother, who was apparently only good for soaking with magic water.

“We haven’t seen our Dad in two years, since he went to the Earth Kingdom to help fight the Fire Nation,” Katara offered. “We know it can be hard when you miss someone.”

If possible, Sokka thought that made Zuko look even more uncomfortable.

…

Aang didn’t mind sitting up front with Appa and chatting with his big friend; it was nice to spend time reminiscing about how things had been back at the Air Temple. Back before Monk Pasang and Monk Tashi had wanted to send him to the Eastern Air Temple and take him away from everything he’d ever known growing up.

It wasn’t _fair!_ Just because he was the Avatar, everyone had wanted to control him! He hadn’t _wanted_ to be the Avatar; he’d just chosen those toys because they seemed fun!

And now it seemed like wherever he went, he had to leave just as he found the fun stuff. He’d woken up one day on Kyoshi Island, about two weeks after they’d arrived, and he had been feeling pretty good about his chances of riding the unagi again, but Oyaji and Suki had told him that he should probably think about moving on from the island. The way Suki had said it, it had sounded like a suggestion, but Aang had been left with the impression it wasn’t a suggestion he could say no to. He wondered if that was how Sokka had felt sometimes.

And now, just as he’d found his friend Bumi again, and they’d been able to ride the mail chutes after what _felt_ like a hundred years to Aang – and what was _literally_ a hundred years for Bumi, _monkeyfeathers_ – they had to get moving again. He hadn’t even been able to ask Bumi what he’d been up to for a hundred years – or how he’d managed to end up as the King of Omashu!

“How’re you feeling, Appa?” He asked, trying to get his mind off the old man who laughed like his friend. “You feel like you’re ready to really go flying again?”

Appa let out a rumbling noise that let Aang know his big friend was still a little bit sleepy. Aang nodded. “That’s cool. We can maybe take it slow today, how about that?”

Appa sounded a bit more pleased at that, but there was a question in his grunt. Aang laughed. “I don’t know if we’ll have _tons_ of hay, but I think Bumi gave us a couple of cabbages?”

Appa declared himself satisfied with cabbage, and they flew on for a little while in a nice silence. Aang was still a little tired – he and Sokka had stayed up late trying different pastries and pies from the palace kitchens – so he took the opportunity to relax and let his mind drift a little, trying to pick out shapes in the clouds. It got a bit boring after a while, though; especially when most of the clouds just looked like… well, clouds.

Sokka seemed to be getting to know Zuko, which was kind of cool, and Katara must have gotten bored of them, because she clambered over the edge of Appa’s saddle to sit next to Aang.

“You’re sure you know where we’re going?” She teased.

“Um,” Aang pretended to think about it for a moment. “The Fire Nation capital?”

As Katara made another move to rub at the top of his head, Aang squirmed away. She gave him a smirk of triumph. “Maybe I should take over steering for a while, if that’s what you think.”

“Really?” Aang tried not to sound too eager. “I mean, you can if you want, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to…”

He was already halfway back to the saddle when Katara laughed and took hold of the reins.

“I’ll be fine, Aang,” she reassured him. “Just keep going in a straight line, Appa, okay?”

Aang could _feel_ Appa rumbling under him as the bison let Katara know that flying in a straight line was a _tremendously_ onerous task, but he would do it because he liked her. That was good – Aang liked Katara too.

Sokka and Zuko were talking about the Earth Kingdom when Aang joined them. It sounded like Sokka wanted to know about the seas around the southern Earth Kingdom.

“The main ports in the southern Earth Kingdom are Jia Gou, Qifeng, and Guapon,” Zuko said. “Jia Gou is quite near Gaoling, and Qifeng is on the eastern side of the Gulf of Deng Hu.”

“Isn’t Chameleon Bay in the Gulf of Deng Hu?” Sokka asked. “I think I’ve heard the name before.”

Zuko nodded. “On the western bay, about a week’s travel south of Ba Sing Se on ostrich-horseback.”

“Do you know all about the Earth Kingdom?” Aang asked, impressed at how much he seemed to know.

Zuko shrugged. “Some parts. My Uncle and I have travelled quite a bit.”

That sounded kind of cool to Aang. “Awesome! Have you been to Gaoling before? I went there once, when I was, like, ten? Monk Pasang wanted to show me an exhibition on Avatar Kyoshi and her friend Yun.”

“Not to Gaoling,” Zuko replied. “We spent most of our time at sea, so I know the seas quite well.”

“How come you went to sea?” Sokka asked. “Did you have to leave your family behind?"

“Sort of,” Zuko said. “We had to leave, because… our family supports the war. And when I found out that the Fire Nation was planning on attacking an Earth Kingdom village, I, uh… yeah. So we had to leave.”

“You and your Uncle opposed the Fire Nation?” Aang asked, perking up. “Is that how you got your scar? Did your family let the Fire Nation attack you because they wanted to –”

“Aang, buddy,” Sokka interrupted, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Can you get me some nuts? I’m kind of hungry.”

Aang frowned. “You were eating a fruit pie, like, ten minutes ago.”

“Momo’s hungry, too,” Sokka said, giving Aang’s shoulder a quick squeeze – _ow_ , Sokka, that hurt! “Can you get Momo some nuts?” He asked, raising his voice over Aang’s protests.

Aang had to rub his shoulder a little bit as he rummaged around through their bags before he found the food bag. “Sokka?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Momo’s going to want lychee nuts, walnuts, or almond nuts?”

“Lychee nuts would be great, Aang,” Sokka replied. He spoke lowly to Zuko, who shook his head and said something back. “And can you get a sticky bun, too?”

Aang frowned. “Momo doesn’t eat sticky buns.”

Sokka sighed. “Just get a couple of sticky buns, Aang, okay?”

Aang could only find three sticky buns, but he thought he could remember Monk Tashi saying something like how asking for a _couple_ of something meant you wanted three, but if you wanted _a whole bunch_ of something, you wanted four or more. He hoped Sokka thought the same way.

Sokka frowned when he counted out three sticky buns. “Are there any more?”

“Sokka, it’s _fine_ ,” Zuko hissed.

“Alright, alright!” Sokka handed Aang one of the sticky buns. “Katara?”

“Hmm?”

“You want a sticky bun?” Sokka asked through a mouthful of sweet treat. “Zuko doesn’t want his.”

Katara smiled as Aang handed her one of the sticky buns. “Thanks, guys! Are you sure you don’t want it, Zuko?”

“It’s fine,” Zuko replied, folding his arms. He’d half-pulled his hood over his face, and Aang could see what Sokka meant, he _did_ look kind of grumpy.

Aang offered Momo some of the lychee nuts, and he ate them pretty quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [_Chahan_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chahan_\(dish\)) is a Japanese-Chinese rice dish, usually fried and served with vegetables, pork, or seafoods.


	5. Chapter 5

Katara was enjoying her first sticky bun in _ages_ when Zuko slid onto Appa’s head next to her.

“Sorry to bother you,” he told her quietly. He spoke in a low voice, with a slight catch to his syllables. “Needed some space.”

She turned around to see Sokka talking to Aang with a serious look on his face. “What’s going on with them?”

Zuko looked straight ahead so that she could only see the unscarred side of his face. His dark hair hung down to the corner of his jaw, falling into his eyes and across the bridge of his nose. “Nothing.”

Aang kept looking at Zuko, but when he saw Katara watching him curiously, he gave her a big smile and waved at her. It didn’t look very convincing, but she wasn’t about to make a big deal out of it. Zuko looked kind of tense.

“So…” She cast around for something to say. “First time on a sky bison?”

It seemed to work; it made Zuko cough out what seemed like a surprised laugh, at least.

“Sure,” he replied eventually. “Heard a lot of good things, thought I’d check it out for myself.”

Katara grinned. “How’re you finding it so far?”

“Better than the mail chutes,” Zuko said dryly. “But that’s not saying much.”

Katara nodded fervently. “I think I regretted that the moment Aang pushed us off. I definitely prefer Appa.”

She grinned as Appa let out a pleased rumble, and looked at Zuko to see his reaction. He was still looking forward as Appa flew over the Earth Kingdom flats and plains.

“Uncle said you’re a waterbender,” he said, apparently out of nowhere.

She smiled, proud of her status. “That’s me. Last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe.”

“And that’s why you’re going north,” Zuko inferred. “To find a master.”

“I feel like I’ve been waiting all my life for this,” she confessed. “Sokka’s wanted to leave home and see the world forever too. He kept saying we could go together, someday, but – it’s not the same, you know?”

“You had a goal,” Zuko said. He finally turned towards her, and she tried not to be distracted by the angry red scar over his left side. His eyes looked ochre in the light of the overcast skies. “Sokka could enjoy the freedom to return home at any time. But you knew you couldn’t.”

Katara nodded, pleased that someone understood. “Right? Don’t get me wrong, I love him – I mean, he’s kind of annoying at times, but he’s still _family_. But it’s not the same, you know?”

Zuko nodded back at her. “I know,” he said softly. “It’s good that he cares about you.”

“He does,” she acknowledged. “When he saw how determined I was to go to the North Pole, he told Gran-Gran he was going to make sure I got there safely. I think he was worried if we didn’t go with Aang, I was going to paddle a canoe the whole way.”

“Was that a valid concern?”

“Maybe,” she allowed, smiling slyly at the boy. “I think your uncle might have had similar concerns about your decision-making skills.”

“Maybe,” Zuko tossed her own word back at her with a small smile of his own. It seemed more shy than sly, though. “But he likes to say he taught me everything I know, so,” he shrugged. “Maybe he’s a bad influence.”

“Sokka would say the same thing,” Katara giggled at the idea. “And he’s _definitely_ a bad influence.”

“He’s taught you everything you know, huh?”

Katara nodded and allowed herself to relax back into Appa’s fur. “That might be why I still need to get to the North Pole for a master – Sokka taught me everything he knows about bending.”

“And that’s… not much?”

She snorted. “You can say _nothing_ , you know. I know I’m not great.”

No, she admitted to herself. She wasn’t a great bender – not yet. But soon, as _soon_ as they got to the Northern Water Tribe. Katara would practice her bending all through the night, every night, if it meant she could learn.

Zuko offered her a tentative smile. “My uncle’s a pretty good bender, and he, uh – he’s a really good teacher. And he, uh, taught me a lot. If you wanted.”

It took her a moment to grasp what he was saying, but when she understood, she sat upright and turned to him. “You’d do that?”

“Um –” he looked a bit taken aback at her enthusiasm. “Yeah? I mean, if you wanted me to? I know it might be a bit weird for you at first, with how different the elements are, but – like, if you thought it could work?”

Truth be told, Katara wasn’t _really_ sure how earthbending could translate to waterbending. And; she’d seen him put his sword down in the saddle; if he wasn’t a bender, would he even know how to show her what to do?

But this was someone who knew _something_ about bending, she thought to herself. Whenever Aang had tried to tell her about how he could airbend, he’d always talked about _spirit_ and _breath_ and _instinct_ , like bending was just this thing he could naturally do. And that didn’t _help_ Katara, who couldn’t just – _feel_ the water like Aang said he could feel the air.

“If you could teach me, that would be amazing,” she told him sincerely. “I don’t want to have to wait until we reach the North Pole before I can start, you know?”

Zuko’s eyes seemed to soften as he looked at her. “I used to really struggle with my bending,” he told her quietly. “My sister – she was always better than me. I had to work really hard to get good, and I only really started improving after… after Uncle took over my training.” He gave her a serious look. “Just – be patient with yourself, okay?”

Katara could be patient. She could wait until Appa stopped and they set up camp for the night – that was patient, right? She wasn’t going to break out some water from their supplies and start practising right now; she thought that was _plenty_ patient!

“Okay,” she acquiesced. “I promise to not get incredibly frustrated if I’m not a waterbending master by this time next week.”

Zuko chuckled. “You’re fourteen, you said?”

“And a bit,” she defended herself reflexively. Sokka _always_ pulled the age card when he was trying to justify being the leader, and she was getting a little tired of being treated like she was a silly little girl, just for being fourteen.

But Zuko didn’t seem to be teasing her. “I wasn’t very good when I was fourteen. I got frustrated – a _lot_.” He seemed to smile at a memory. “But Uncle made me work hard at my bending, and – I got better because I worked hard. Because I _wanted_ it. Does that make sense?”

Katara thought about how she had dreamed of the North Pole, ever since _Mom_ and maybe even beyond that.

“I’ve never wanted anything more,” she told him. Her voice was quiet, but her spirit was determined. “And I’m not going to give up.”

Something flashed in Zuko’s eyes, but it was gone before she could place it. There was no mistaking the approval in his words, though.

“I have a feeling you’ll be a master in no time,” he said in his rasping voice.

…

Sokka waited for Zuko to climb up to sit on Appa’s head with Katara before he turned to Aang and gave him the same glare Dad had given him when he had found a six-year-old Sokka stealing seal jerky from Katara’s plate before dinner.

Just like a six-year-old Sokka, Aang looked entirely aware that he had done _something_ wrong, yet extremely confused as to _what_ exactly he had done wrong.

“Aang,” Sokka began, keeping his voice low so Zuko couldn’t hear. “You know how there’s some questions that you _should_ ask people, and some questions you _shouldn’t_ ask people?”

Aang’s gray eyes widened. “Can Zuko even _do_ that?”

Sokka frowned. “What?”

“Monk Gyatso told me that you should never ask a woman if she’s pregnant,” Aang told him. “Sokka, is Zuko _pregnant?_ ”

Sokka could feel his mouth hanging slightly open.

 _This is my life now_ , he thought numbly to himself. _My little sister split an iceberg open with her crazy magic water, and now I’m telling the Avatar about how babies are made. This is my life now_.

“Aang,” he began slowly. “Zuko’s a guy.”

“I know _that_ ,” Aang gave him a funny look. “That’s why that’s so _weird_.”

He looked over at Zuko, and Sokka couldn’t help but look with him. Katara seemed to _sense_ their curiosity and looked back at them.

Sokka quickly looked away, but Aang gave her a quick wave. “Do you think that’s why he’s sitting with Katara?” He whispered. “So they can talk about stuff like pregnancy?”

“No, Aang –” Sokka dropped his shoulders, and also dropped any hopes of escaping this awful conversation.

The spirits hated Sokka, he was pretty sure of it by now. That was okay. He was pretty sure he hated the spirits, too.

“Katara’s not pregnant,” he said as firmly as he could. “And I’m pretty sure Zuko’s not pregnant, either. And that’s _not_ the only question you should never ask someone.”

“I know that!” Aang looked a bit offended at the idea that Sokka thought he was unversed in social interaction. And, to be fair, Sokka could understand why; conversation with most of the kids at the South Pole involved a lot of nonsensical babbling, and conversation with most of the adults involved discussing bowel movements in _wayyyyyy_ too much information. He wasn’t one to talk.

“I know what the questions are that aren’t okay,” Aang continued. “You’re not supposed to ask about their wealth, their health, or their bending, for fear of offending.”

Sokka quite liked that; he’d have to remember it! It had a nice rhyme to it. _Anyway_.

“You’re also not supposed to ask people about really unusual stuff,” he tried to explain. “Like big scars.”

Aang frowned. “Why not?”

“Because –” Sokka grasped for an explanation, before quickly realizing that he wasn’t actually all that sure. For the Southern Water Tribe, scars usually meant that you’d come through a tough battle and emerged victorious. They were signs of strength. But he had gotten the feeling, when Suki had beaten the ever-loving _crap_ out of him in a spar after he had asked about one of the scars on her leg, that the Earth Kingdom didn’t see things quite the same way.

“Because it’s rude,” he settled on lamely. “And some people don’t like to talk about them.”

“But you kept talking about it,” Aang pointed out. “You said it made him look really angry.”

 _Oops_. Okay, Sokka felt a little bad about that. “Yeah, I did. But I didn’t point it out in front of him and make him feel like we were really interested in the scar, you know? He might not like people pointing it out all the time.”

“Oh.” Aang looked crestfallen as he looked over at Zuko again. “Do you think he’s mad at me?”

“Probably not _mad_ ,” Sokka allowed. “But he could be pretty sensitive about it. So don’t make it a big deal, okay?”

Aang fiddled with the lychee nuts he was holding. “It’s just that people always used to ask me about my tattoos.”

“Yeah, but your tattoos are awesome,” Sokka pointed out the difference. “You got them because you’re an airbending mater, and you’re able to do super cool bending.”

Aang looked a little proud of himself at that. “Right.”

“So that’s, like, something that you’d be really happy to talk about, right?”

Aang almost blushed, but come _on_ , Sokka wasn’t buying that. He’d heard Katara complaining to Suki about Aang’s fan club on Kyoshi Island. He’d also teased her about how it was a _fan_ club on Kyoshi Island, where everyone fought with _fans_. Including her!

Neither she nor Katara had been too impressed. _Anyway_.

“My _point_ ,” he continued, “Is that Zuko might not be really happy to talk about this time in his life where he got a fireball to the face. That shit _hurts_ , Aang.”

Aang looked shocked, which just confounded Sokka. The idea that fire could be painful if applied directly to the skin was _not_ as strange a concept as Aang seemed to be finding it. “What?”

“You said a _bad_ word,” Aang whispered.

 _Oops_. “Don’t tell Katara I said that,” Sokka said hastily. “But I said it because sometimes you’ve got to say bad words. Because some situations are just that shit, you know?”

“And getting a fireball to the face is one of them,” Aang nodded. “I get what you mean, Sokka.”

Sokka breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, cool. Grand. So try not to bring it up in conversation, okay?”

“Okay,” Aang nodded, but he still looked a bit pensive. “You know, my tattoos hurt a _lot_ when I got them.”

“When did you get them, anyway?” Sokka asked. “You’re, like, twelve, right?”

Aang nodded. “I was eleven when I became a master,” he stated proudly. “I was the youngest airbending master in Air Nomad history. Monk Pasang said that I was better than some of my teachers!”

Despite how he repeatedly professed that he didn’t really _care_ about bending, Sokka couldn’t help but be impressed. “So you’re a pretty good airbender, huh? Better than Monk –” he groped around for the name. “Gyatso?”

Aang really did blush that time, but Sokka thought that was probably fair. “Nobody’s a better airbender than Gyatso, Sokka,” he said, but Sokka could tell that he was feeling really happy to even be _compared_ to the old guy.

Sokka could understand the feeling. Whenever Bato had said that Sokka would grow up to give his Dad a run for his seal jerky, Sokka had always felt this weird mixture of excitement and complete disbelief. Like – he’d _love_ to be as good as his Dad, but what were the odds of that?

Even Bato couldn’t beat his Dad in one-on-one fighting, and Bato was _amazing_.

“What about that other guy, then?” He asked instead. “That grumpy old dude?”

“Who, Monk Tashi?” Aang pulled a face. “I mean, I probably _was_ better than him, but he’d never _admit_ it…”

…

Katara and Sokka had already gotten down off of Appa, and Aang was about to go exploring with Momo when Zuko called after him.

“Aang, can you help me get these bags down off Appa?”

Appa let out a low growl that probably meant he wanted the bags taken down off him too. Aang winced. “Sorry, buddy. Yeah, Zuko, that’s cool! Just throw them down, okay? And I’ll airbend them down, no problem!”

He thought that after his talk with Sokka, he should probably be extra nice to Zuko for a bit so he didn’t get mad at him.

It was pretty easy, once Zuko tossed a few bags down, for Aang to use his airbending to cushion them and break their fall. As Katara busied herself with sorting out the stuff she’d need for dinner – Aang wasn’t entirely sure why she was using _that_ pot and not the _other_ pot – and Sokka dragged one of the tents over to a suitable spot in the clearing, Zuko stepped closer to Aang. He looked a little nervous, and for a brief, awful moment, Aang remembered his conversation with Sokka.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Zuko asked quietly.

_Monkeyfeathers!_

“Are you pregnant?” Aang asked tentatively.

Zuko frowned “What? Uh – no, I don’t think so.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, good. So, what is it?”

“I was just wondering if, uh, Bumi said something to you. Something important?”

Aang perked up. “Oh, yeah!”

This seemed to make Zuko tense up, which was weird. “And… did he tell you?”

“Yeah,” Aang replied, nodding his head. “Yeah, and it was _confusing_ , don’t get me wrong, but – I guess it’s the kind of thing I should know as the Avatar, right?”

After all, dealing with spirits was kind of his job, right? Aang didn’t know much about the Dark Water Spirit, but he figured that he would probably end up dealing with them (or it? Were Dark Water Spirits like people that way?) sooner or later.

“Yeah,” Zuko looked a bit relieved at that. “So you’re not – like, you’re not mad about it?”

“No, it’s cool! I mean, it might get a bit complicated when we get to the North Pole –” Aang was hoping that the Dark Water Spirit would be pretty cool (ha! That was one of Sokka’s jokes) when Aang got there, and they wouldn’t do anything too weird. “But until then, we should be fine, right?”

“Yeah,” Zuko repeated. He was still giving Aang a funny look, though. “And you still – like, you trust me, right?”

Aang smiled and gave him a firm nod. “Bumi said I could. And I trust Bumi, right? So I trust you.”

“Great.” Zuko looked a lot happier after that. He even gave Aang a smile, which made him look a lot less grumpy. “Great, that’s – thanks, Aang. Really, that – that means a lot. So do you think – Sokka and Katara, do you think they’ll be cool with it?”

Aang scratched his head. Truth be told, Sokka didn’t strike him as the spiritual type, but he couldn’t think of any reason why Katara wouldn’t be cool with the Dark Water Spirit. She was a waterbender, so she would be okay with the spirits, right?

“I think Sokka might be a little freaked out,” he said hesitantly. “But I think Katara would be okay with it. But I guess we won’t really know for sure until we know, you know?”

Zuko nodded seriously. “Right. I know what you mean. Katara said she’d maybe want to talk about it at some point, but – maybe not yet, you know? I know it must have been weird for Bumi to tell you, but – yeah. You can trust me. And I won’t let you down.”

He gave Aang another small smile, and moved off to go help Sokka with the tents. They stood there for a few moments with their arms folded, looking very serious and grown-up. There was a bit of conferring, and Sokka pointed around for a bit, and Zuko made a few gestures. Then, they nodded at each other and Sokka started unpacking a tent.

“Can I help with anything, Zuko?” Aang asked.

Zuko looked at Sokka, who shook his head. “I think we’re good here, buddy,” he answered. “But, actually, can you go and make sure Momo isn’t going through my bags?”

Aang sighed. “He only did that _once_ , Sokka, and he said he was sorry afterwards!”

“Sorry he got caught,” Sokka muttered. “Okay, but can you just go check on my stuff?”

“Actually, Aang,” Zuko said. “Can you go and see if Katara needs any help with dinner?”

Aang didn’t really like the sound of that. From what he’d seen and heard at the South Pole, helping with dinner involved a lot of work with blood, guts and raw meat. “Are you _sure_ you guys don’t need any help here?”

“We’re fine, Aang,” Sokka waved him off. “Go help Katara, okay? Sooner dinner’s ready, the sooner we can eat.”

So Aang had gone back to Katara, but at least she had seemed happy to see him. She’d given him a smile and everything. “Hey, Aang. What’s up?”

He scratched his head and tried not to look at the shiny red thing she was cutting up with a knife. “I was just wondering if you needed any help with dinner?”

At least she gave him a big smile because of that, which made things _slightly_ less bad. “Oh, that would be great! I think I’m okay for now, but can you just keep an eye on the rice and tell me when it’s ready?”

Aang could do that! He turned towards the big pot of simmering water and looked hard at it. Then, he remembered something. “Uh, Katara?”

“Hmm?” Katara was already turning back to slicing and dicing… whatever it was she was slicing and dicing.

“How do I know when the rice is ready?”

“Well, it’s still got to absorb the water so it’ll be thick and fluffy, but that probably won’t be for a while yet – actually, Aang,” she paused in her cutting to give him another quick smile. “I think I’m probably good here for now – can you do me a big favor and just go make sure Momo isn’t getting into mischief with Sokka’s stuff? He can be kind of territorial about it, I think you’ve noticed.”

Aang sighed, but at least he wasn’t just staring at rice. He quickly found Momo sniffing at Zuko’s bag.

“Sorry, Momo,” he apologized. “But I think we should let Zuko have a quiet night before we start trying to make friends.”

Momo chittered, and Aang nodded. “I know, I’m not feeling tired either. I think Appa did a lot of work, but I’ve still got a whole load of energy left over.”

Aang picked up his glider and readied himself, before taking a short run-up and jumping into the air with a gust of wind, Momo flapping his wings behind him. He’d only made a couple of loop-de-loops when he heard a scream, a shout, and a yell from below.

By the time he tumbled back down to the campsite, Zuko was sprawled on the ground clutching his face and swearing, Katara was stood over him holding a frying pan, and Sokka was aiming his boomerang at Zuko’s head.

“What’s going on?” Aang exclaimed. He’d only been gone for thirty seconds! “What _happened?_ ”

Katara turned to look at him with fierce blue eyes. Her knuckles were white around the handle of the frying pan.

“ _Zuko_ ,” she snarled. “He’s a _firebender!_ ”


	6. Chapter 6

As Aang had flown off on his glider, the sudden gust of wind had made Katara’s cooking fire gutter and die. With a resigned sigh, she’d set the knife aside and started to stand to her feet. She _thought_ the spark rocks were in Sokka’s bag, although she’d have to check…

“Do you need some help with that?”

She turned around to see Zuko gesturing at the rice pot. “Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

He quirked a small smile at her, and –

Earthbenders didn’t bend _fire_.

Katara didn’t even think twice.

One moment she was staring dumbly at what had just been embers, and the next, she was standing over Zuko with a frying pan held in two clenched fists and the stinging vibrations running through the handle.

_Firebender!_

Sokka must have heard Zuko’s howl of pain, because he was there in a moment. “ _What happened?_ ”

“Zuko,” she managed, her heart pounding in her chest. “He made the fire.”

Sokka looked confused. “And that gets the food cooking, so we’re complaining _why_ , exactly?”

“What’s going on?” Aang arrived suddenly, a little out of breath. “What happened?”

“Zuko,” Katara spat, turning to face Aang because she couldn’t _look_ at this _ashmaker_. “He’s a firebender.”

The boy in question let out a pained groan from where he was lying on the ground. _Good_. Katara had swung that frying pan with intent; she’d put a lot of force into it. If he knew what was good for him, he’d stay down.

“A _firebender?_ ” Sokka shouted, drawing his boomerang and pointing it at the _enemy_. “La’s depths, Katara, get _back!_ ”

“Guys, come on!” Aang stepped forward. “Hold on a moment!”

“You too, Aang!” Sokka barked. “He’s _Fire Nation_ , don’t get near him!”

Aang hesitated, but Katara had to reach out and touch his sleeve. He looked from her to Zuko’s crumpled form, and then back to her.

“Don’t, Aang,” she implored him. “Let Sokka handle this.”

Sokka quickly hauled Zuko up into a slumped sitting position, and kneeled behind him. Katara noted with satisfaction that Sokka was kneeling on Zuko’s hands, driving them into the dirt.

He held his boomerang to the bender’s neck and grabbed his hair with one hand.

“Sokka, I really don’t think –” Aang began, but Sokka talked over him.

“Who sent you after us?” He demanded, giving Zuko a shake.

He just got a pained moan in response, but he was undeterred. “Who knows you’re here?”

If Katara only knew _how_ , she would have bent the water from that cooking pot into Zuko’s face and woken him up. Cold water, hot water, it didn’t _matter_.

Instead, she bent down so she was at Zuko’s eye level, and prodded at his shoulder. “Who else knows you’re here, Zuko?”

The firebender gave another groan before he gave a pained exhale. “What in Agni’s name are you _doing_ , Avatar?”

Katara made sure she took a step back out of Zuko’s immediate range before giving Aang a confused look. “What’s he talking about?”

“I don’t know!” Aang looked as lost as she did.

“You said she’d be cool with it,” Zuko managed. “And she hit me with a _frying_ _pan!_ ”

“You knew he was a firebender?” Sokka asked in disbelief. “You _knew_ he was a firebender, and you let him travel with us? With you, the _Avatar_ – with my _sister?_ ” He demanded, with rising anger.

“I didn’t know!” Aang insisted, dropping his glider so he could raise his hands placatingly. “I swear, I didn’t even know Zuko was a firebender!”

“What are you _talking_ about?” Zuko slurred. “You said Bumi talked to you about it. You said you were cool with it!”

“ _Bumi_ knew?” Sokka looked downright alarmed at this. “Aang, I’m _seriously_ questioning whether your mad genius friend is as much of a genius as you’re saying he is!”

“But he didn’t say anything!” Aang insisted. “He said he had something important to tell me, yeah, but he didn’t say anything about Zuko being a _firebender!_ ”

Zuko seemed to have recovered a little from Katara’s opening blow – she _wasn’t_ discounting a second, or maybe a third – but he was looking at Aang with pained confusion. She hoped the pain was physical, too.

“He _didn’t_ tell you?” He managed. “What – but he told Uncle he’d tell you. What you needed to know. What did he tell you?”

“Shut up,” Sokka warned him, giving his head a rough shake. Then he turned back to Aang. “What did Bumi tell you, Aang?”

Aang looked a little uncomfortable to have all the attention on him when he wasn’t practicing his marble trick. “He said that the Dark Water Spirit is a friend to the Avatar.”

“What?” Katara couldn’t imagine why that was relevant information. “What’s _that_ got to do with Zuko being a firebender?”

As the three of them all paused to look at the firebender, Zuko closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath about Pai Sho.

“Don’t start plotting in front of us, buddy,” Sokka warned him coldly. Katara readied her frying pan again, just in case.

“I’m not plotting,” Zuko managed, working his jaw. Katara could see a bruise forming, much to her satisfaction. The left side of his face would have _quite_ the selection of injuries.

“I’m not your enemy, either,” he continued. Katara believed _that_ even less than she had believed his first denial. “I’m your friend.”

“You’re a _firebender_ ,” she reminded him coolly. “You’re from the _Fire Nation_.” She sharpened her words like bone spears, flung them at this _ashmaker_ like the snow of her home. “You are the _enemy_ , and there’s _no way_ you’re our _friend_.”

She’d been sitting right next to him on Appa, she realized distantly. He’d been _right there_ , he could have lit his hand on fire and burned her heart out – he’d been sitting with Sokka, he could have thrown him overboard – he’d been there with _Aang_ , with the _Avatar_ –

She tried to pour every last bit of hate she could into the way she glared at this boy of _fire_.

“Sokka, let Zuko get up.”

Sokka and Katara both gave Aang outraged looks at that.

“Aang,” Sokka began. “I know you were all, you know, _frozen_ for a hundred years, but I don’t think you missed the part where the Fire Nation are the _bad guys_ , right?”

“I know, Sokka.” Aang was still glancing hesitantly between Sokka and Zuko. _Good_ , Katara thought savagely. He _shouldn’t_ trust the firebender.

“But my friend Kuzon was from the Fire Nation,” he continued, now looking at Zuko. “And he was still one of my best friends, even though he was a firebender. And even if Bumi didn’t tell me Zuko was a firebender, he did tell me we could trust him. So let him get up.”

…

Zuko was going to _kill_ Bumi.

He didn’t care that he was the King of Omashu, he didn’t care that he was a _mad genius_ , he didn’t care that Uncle thought his use of the chrysanthemum tile was _inspired_ , he was going to _kill_ that kooky old _bastard_ if it was the last thing he did.

 _Why_ had he thought that telling the Avatar about the Dark Water Spirit – which wasn’t even the _name_ of his alter ego – was a good idea? _Love Amongst the Dragons_ was a Fire Nation play; that was the whole _point_ of Zuko using the Dark Water Spirit mask in the Earth Kingdom, that nobody would recognize it well enough to give his identity away. The Avatar wouldn’t have any idea what the Dark Water Spirit had to do with _anything_ , much less _Zuko_ , but Bumi had apparently thought it was more important than the fact that Zuko was a firebender.

Zuko’s aching jaw begged to differ.

“If Bumi didn’t tell you he was a firebender, that might mean Bumi didn’t _know_ ,” Katara told Aang. “Which means Zuko might not have _told_ him.”

Her blue eyes were as cold as the southern ice and twice as deadly, and Zuko silently pleaded with the Avatar to protect him from further frying pan-related violence.

“Why would I not tell Bumi I’m a firebender, only to firebend right in front of you?” Zuko asked pointedly, ignoring the pulsing agony in his jaw. At least she hadn’t hit him in the eye. He’d had enough injuries inflicted on his left eye for one lifetime.

“We’re asking the questions here,” Sokka warned him, shifting on his knees in a way that ground Zuko’s hands into the ground. He bit back a curse.

“We don’t need to ask them like this, Sokka,” Aang said anxiously. “Come on, let him up.”

“We can’t _trust_ him, Aang!” Katara half-shouted. “If Sokka lets him up, we don’t know what he’ll do!”

“I give you my word,” Zuko managed. “I won’t harm any of you. You can release me, and you can trust me.”

He reflected bitterly on the fact that his word was all he _had_ now that he had been banished. The Water Tribe siblings were rejecting him because they defined him by a nation that had rejected him long before they had even met him.

Thankfully, the Avatar seemed to have a little more sense. “Kuzon always said that the worst thing you could do in the Fire Nation was break your word,” he said, looking at Zuko intently. “Do you also give your word that you won’t cause us reason to harm you?”

Zuko was pretty sure that Sokka and Katara didn’t _need_ any reason to harm him, and that their definition of a good reason – or _any_ reason, really – would differ greatly to the airbender’s. But Sokka’s knees were _extremely_ painful on his wrists, and he didn’t much like the way he was gripping his hair, either. “Yes.”

Aang nodded. “Let him go, Sokka.”

Slowly, and with much distrust, Sokka got to his feet.

“Don’t move,” he told Zuko flatly, menace simmering in his eyes.

He swallowed. “I won’t.”

“You’d better not,” Katara said flatly. “Or you might not move again.”

Where Sokka’s eyes were narrowed, Katara’s were outright venomous. She had been joking with him earlier; now it wasn’t just her humor that was gone – it seemed like every emotion had vanished except _hate_.

Zuko experimentally flexed his fingers, and sighed with relief. Sokka’s knees had been _bony_ , but at least there didn’t seem to be any permanent damage.

“Alright,” he said, trying to keep his calm. “What do you want to know?”

“Who sent you after Aang?” Sokka asked, quick as a flash.

“I already told you,” Zuko answered, trying to keep his cool. “Master Oyaji told us you were on Kyoshi Island, then when we got there, you’d already moved onto Omashu. Uncle and Bumi thought I should travel with you.”

“How did you end up friends with Bumi?” Katara sneered. “Omashu’s kept the Fire Nation at bay for years – there’s no way he’d be friends with _firebenders_.”

“Um, Katara?” Aang shifted nervously. “Bumi and I actually had a firebender friend – his name was Kuzon? He’s the one I told you about.”

“This is different, Aang,” Katara said firmly. “Kuzon wasn’t trying to kill you.”

“Neither am I,” Zuko insisted firmly. “I’m here to _help_ , I swear!”

He looked helplessly at Aang for some, _any_ sign of support.

“How about we just let Zuko answer the questions?” The Avatar asked.

When a thirteen-year-old Zuko had been researching the Air Nomads, one of the few things the Earth Kingdom records been able to reach a consensus with Fire Nation writings on had been that the Air Nomads had not been particularly skilled at conflict resolution. Peace-loving and harmonious, yes, but when events had fractured that peace, they had struggled to deal with them. Jin Mao had dedicated two whole chapters of his _Third Volume on the Eastern Fathers_ to an episode at the Eastern Air Temple where two monks had disagreed over a flagrant foul in an airball game and had not resolved their quarrel thirty years later.

Air was the element of freedom; it evaded, dodged, deflected. It didn’t like dealing with complicated issues. Zuko had a feeling that the Avatar would struggle with the political dimension to his role.

“Hey,” Sokka snapped his fingers. “Talk, jerkbender.”

Zuko refocused. How he knew Bumi. “About two years after Uncle and I left the Fire Nation, Uncle took me to meet Bumi. They’ve been friends for years.”

Sokka frowned. “You said you had to leave home because your family supports the war.”

“Uncle and I don’t,” Zuko stressed. “We _don’t_. We want the war to end.”

“And who do you want to win?” Katara asked, her eyes narrowed. “Because we’re not _stupid_ , Zuko. There’s a difference between ending the war and defeating the Fire Lord.”

Zuko was well aware of that; Uncle had always been very careful to talk about how he wanted to _end the war_ , not _defeat the Fire Lord_. Blood, it appeared, was still worth something to Uncle Iroh.

Which Zuko would always be grateful for – if it hadn’t, he wasn’t sure _where_ he would be now, nearly three years after his banishment.

“The world is out of balance,” he answered, keeping his focus on Aang. The Avatar. “I know my destiny is to help you restore balance to the world. It won’t fix everything, but – it’ll be a start.”

Zuko had spent the past three years searching for any sign of the Avatar. First for himself, and then for Uncle, and then for some other reason that he wasn’t sure how to explain even to himself. But now, as he locked eyes with the last airbender, gold and gray, he hoped the Avatar knew that he was trying to do the right thing.

…

Aang hadn’t known many firebenders a hundred years ago, and he’d only really been proper friends with Kuzon. He’d only known Zuko for about a day, and he’d only really had one real conversation with him – and that hadn’t gone so well. And clearly they had gotten off on the wrong foot, but maybe that was because Bumi hadn’t given him _quite_ the important information he maybe should have done.

But Bumi _had_ given Aang some information, he remembered. And maybe Bumi had reminded him of something, as well.

“Bumi told me that _what_ you are isn’t as important as _who_ you are,” he said. “If you’re on our side, that’s more important than you being a firebender, or from the Fire Nation.”

He felt a bit awkward about meeting Zuko’s eyes. It was partially because he always felt a bit uncomfortable with his scar, which he knew wasn’t Zuko’s _fault_ , and he did actually feel a bit bad about it now, after his conversation with Sokka. But it was also partially because a red-purple bruise was rapidly forming across Zuko’s cheek and jaw where Katara must have walloped him with the frying pan. That bruise looked like it had a _pulse_ , so it must have hurt.

“You can keep travelling with us,” he decided finally. “But Katara, Sokka and I need to talk about how that’s going to work.”

Sokka looked like he was trying very hard not to yell at Aang. Katara just folded her arms; she was keeping hold of that frying pan.

“We can talk about that tomorrow,” she eventually agreed. “But it’s getting late, and I still need to get dinner finished.”

“I can help with –” Zuko started, but Katara was already turning to face him and pointing the frying pan at him again. Aang gulped. He _really_ hoped Katara wasn’t going to give Zuko another wallop.

“You’re _not_ helping,” Katara told him stonily. “You can't possibly think that any of us would trust you, can you? I mean, how stupid do you think we are?”

For a moment, Aang was actually kind of worried that Zuko was going to say something really sarcastic in reply, and that would have been _really_ bad.

“I was just going to relight the fire,” Zuko said carefully.

“We’ve got spark rocks,” Sokka told him. “No, thanks.”

“Are they in your bag?” Katara asked him, and Sokka nodded. She set off towards their stuff, but not without giving Zuko one final warning look that made _Aang_ feel like he’d been warned, and she wasn’t even directing it at him!

Katara was _scary_ when she was mad, he decided. But it was kind of unfair for her to be mad at Zuko, considering she was the one who’d whacked _him_ in the face with a kitchen instrument.

“I’m going to go set up that second tent,” Sokka said to Zuko. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you tonight.”

He stomped off, muttering to himself about _sneaky jerkbenders_ and how the people they’d met in Omashu were _way_ more trouble than the people they’d met on Kyoshi.

It left Aang alone with Zuko, which he felt very confused about.

“Uh,” he looked over at Katara, who was sorting through Sokka’s bag. “Did they just leave us alone after thinking you were going to try and kill me the first chance you got?”

Zuko scowled slightly as he shuffled over to the big pot of rice. He made a small hand movement, and suddenly the fire was relit. Cool!

“Guess I’m not the only one who doesn’t think things through,” he muttered, giving the rice a quick stir.

Kuzon had always had to make big, sweeping gestures to bring his fire out, and he’d said it was because he was _still working on his connection to his inner flame_ , whatever that meant. But the way Zuko had casually twisted his fingers and sent out a small flicker of fire to sort out the cooking looked like he knew what he was doing.

“Can you make a campfire?” Aang asked eagerly. It was getting kind of cool in the autumn.

The monks had often said that autumn was the time of year when airbending was at its most powerful. They hadn’t celebrated individual birthdays at the Southern Air Temple, but they’d always had a big celebration on the southward equinox in mid-autumn. Aang had eaten a whole egg custard tart and shared half of another one with Monk Pasang, and then lay around on his back for the rest of the evening whilst his stomach complained about the work it was having to do.

“We haven’t got much firewood, Aang,” Zuko pointed out.

Aang looked around. “But there’s tons of sticks and branches and stuff.”

“Most of it’s wet,” he explained. “Wood needs to be dry to burn, or you’ll choke on the smoke.”

“Can’t Katara, like – bend the water out of it?”

He shrugged. “Ask her.”

“Ask her what?” Katara reappeared. “We told you _not_ to light the fire.”

Zuko didn’t say anything, and he didn’t say anything throughout dinner, which was spent mainly in silence. Aang tried to ask Katara about whether she could bend water out of wood to make it dry, but she shook her head.

“It’s still sort of hard for me to sense the water, Aang,” she said. “I need to be able to pull on it, but it’s sort of tricky when there’s not much of it to pull on.”

Aang glanced at Zuko, who was eating his plain rice and doing a very good job of not making eye contact with anyone.

“Do you want to practice?” He asked hopefully. “Zuko, you’re a bender, right?”

“I’m not learning how to bend _my_ element from a firebender, Aang,” Katara shut the idea down before he could even ask that question. “He won’t know a _thing_ about waterbending, anyway,” she added with a scoff.

Zuko sighed as he finished off his rice and got to his feet to wash his bowl out with a bit of water. “Well, the offer’s there if you want it.”

“Where are you going?” Sokka called after his retreating back.

“To bed,” Zuko called back. “Figured the after-dinner conversation could go on without me.”

Aang sighed as Zuko left them to their talk. Their fire was burning low, and the dusk was quickly falling, but he wanted to get this sorted before going to bed. Monk Gyatso had always said that trying to fall sleep after an argument was like trying to play airball without any bending; it was possible, but you felt worse for it in the morning when you woke up hurting.

But when Sokka quickly moved off after Zuko, and Katara washed up their bowls in stony silence and then went straight to bed, Aang thought sadly that maybe it would have to wait until morning.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quite a few comments on the previous chapter voiced surprise that Katara reacted so strongly to Zuko the firebender. Things do get better, I promise, but – well, can you really blame her? Honestly, I would have been more surprised had Katara _not_ reacted poorly to someone from the Fire Nation!  
> Katara loves _fiercely_ , as [this Tumblr post](https://my-bated-breath.tumblr.com/post/627836771829530624/rage-compassion-and-the-bridge-in-between) lays out very well. Thanks, [My Bated Breath](https://my-bated-breath.tumblr.com/), for letting me use this and draw upon their work in characterising Katara! :)  
> 

Sokka had been twitchy for quite some time after Zuko had closed his eyes and done his best to fall asleep – rustling and shuffling round on his bedroll as Zuko tried to sleep. It would have been distracting, had Zuko not shared tents with Uncle at various times over the past year. He’d quickly gotten used to falling asleep whenever and wherever he could.

But he always woke up at dawn.

He tried to get up quietly; it wouldn’t be a wise idea for Sokka to attack him in such a confined space, but from the way the other boy had been acting last night, he wasn’t going to try and wake him up. Zuko had been half-convinced that he’d be waking up in a boomerang-induced coma, which he was _well aware_ didn’t make sense, thank you, Uncle.

As he left the tent, the cool morning air made his jaw ache, and he had to take a moment to tentatively rub at it. Did the Water Tribes consider frying pans to be respected weapons?

He wadded his overshirt up and laid it down on the ground before sitting down and assuming a meditative position. He had brought a candle out with him, but he didn’t bother lighting it; the sky was clear, and the sun was already rising in the sky. He closed his eyes, and tried to reach out and feel the sun as it touched his inner flame. The greatest source of fire, yet it was in complete balance with nature.

 _Fire is alive. It breathes, it grows_.

But the sun was stable. It was there at the start of the day, it was there at the end of the day, and it would be there tomorrow. It reminded him a little of himself. Zuko had gone through many changes in the past three years, but no matter how things seemed to changed, he would never forget who he was.

 _Remember your destiny_.

It was something to focus on other than the way his face was still throbbing.

It was not the worst injury he had sustained to the left side of his face, but it still wasn’t _pleasant_. The Avatar’s companions had seemed happy to let him know in no uncertain terms how they felt about him, and how unhappy they had been that he had showed up. That was fine – Zuko was used to it.

The first time Uncle had taken him to meet Master Jeong Jeong, Zuko had been fourteen. Jeong Jeong had left the Fire Nation shortly after Zuko’s banishment, and it had taken him eighteen months to settle in the northern Earth Kingdom. When Zuko had entered the master’s tent and kneeled, asking him to take him on for a short while as a student, Jeong Jeong had not been impressed.

“You are a boy,” he had pronounced, critical and severe. “You are no soldier; I have fought more battles than you have seen winters. Why should I teach you, when you still have much to learn?”

“Master,” Zuko had said. “My uncle tells me that it is important to draw wisdom from many different places.”

Jeong Jeong had always looked slightly annoyed, with the way he pursed his lips. They had thinned even further when Zuko said that. “A deserter’s camp in the Earth Kingdom is as different a place to the Royal Palace as you might find. And I would not teach you when you were the Fire Lord’s son, Prince of the Nation. Why would I teach you now?”

The bitterness of Zuko’s exile had faded from the sting of his tears on his open wound, but it still tugged at a hollow part of his chest, just below his heart. “Teach me for my uncle, Master Jeong Jeong. And for our nation.”

“ _Our_ nation?” Jeong Jeong’s lip curled. “The Fire Nation is without honor, boy. It fights an endless war that cannot be won, lost in hatred and drunk on blood. I left behind the senseless violence. I am a stranger to my homeland, and _you_ are banished. We have no nation to call our own.”

Zuko bowed, touching his forehead to the ground. “Just because you’re without honor doesn’t mean you won’t ever get it back, Master.”

Zuko didn’t like kneeling; it brought back memories he would much rather stay buried. But Uncle had reassured him that he could trust Master Jeong Jeong, so he had stayed there, with the tension hurting in his spine and neck and shoulders, until Jeong Jeong had spoken again.

“There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare,” he said. “Yet the Fire Lord fights a war that has continued for a century. He favors Zhao’s violence and the butcher, Bujing. You opposed Bujing in the Fire Lord’s war council.”

Zuko had not seen Bujing again after he had left the meeting. He had only seen the Fire Lord once after the meeting. He had seen Zhao a few more times than he would have preferred to, especially since his banishment. “I did.”

“You spoke out against the madness.” Jeong Jeong had paused before continuing in a considered tone. “I will train you, Prince Zuko.”

He had breathed a sigh of relief and straightened up again. “Thank you, Master.”

“Do not thank me yet, boy,” Jeong Jeong had muttered. “Not until we have fixed your atrocious stance. Now, show me your breath!”

Zuko had stayed with Jeong Jeong for three months. It had been the longest period of time he had spent separate from Uncle since his exile, and he had not enjoyed much of it. Meditating in darkened rooms, lots of slow breathing and climbing up mountains, and an awful lot of burning leaves. But he had persevered under his stern taskmaster, and when Uncle had come to meet him again, Jeong Jeong had grudgingly acknowledged that he was a less foolish boy – but not by much – than he had been when he had arrived.

Jeong Jeong had not wanted Zuko around, and Zuko had needed to work hard to gain his approval. He had always had to struggle and fight, and that was what had made him strong. It was what had made him who he was.

His mother had told him to never forget who he was, and as Zuko inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, feeling the sun’s warmth and feeling his inner fire grow brighter as the day began, he remembered.

 _I am Zuko, son of Ursa, and I won’t give up without a fight_.

…

Aang didn’t really have a set time of day when he woke up, but when he _did_ wake up, he tended to be pretty well-rested. Gyatso had always said that if a room in the Temple needed cleaning, they just needed to let Aang sleep in there overnight, and when he woke up in the morning, his burst of energy would blow all the cobwebs away.

But after meeting Katara and Sokka, he’d quickly learnt that his new friends weren’t really morning people. Well, Katara was, because she usually got up early to make breakfast, but she must have pulled at least three blankets over herself during the night, and Aang could just about see the top of her head poking out of the pile of furs she was still fast asleep in.

As a monk, Aang didn’t really like the furs, so he had been very grateful when Suki had given him a thick blanket as they left Kyoshi. She’d also given Katara a knife, which had been very useful for chopping up stuff, and she’d even given Sokka a kiss on the cheek!

But even if Katara and Sokka and maybe Zuko were all still asleep, Aang was wide awake. He wasn’t feeling too hungry, though, so he thought he’d maybe go and fly around for a bit, like he’d been planning to before things all went super crazy before dinner last night. Hopefully by the time he got back, Katara would have woken up and they’d be able to have breakfast.

When he pushed his way out of the tent, though, he was surprised to see that Zuko was already awake.

“Morning, Zuko,” he greeted the firebender. “Sleep okay?”

Zuko opened his eyes – well, he opened his right eye, but his scarred left eye sort of cracked open a little bit. He didn’t not move from his sitting position. “Okay, I guess. How about you?”

“Oh, yeah, I slept great! How come you’re up so early?”

Zuko gestured up in the air. “Uncle taught me to rise with the sun. It helps to meditate.”

Whenever Aang had tried meditating, he’d quickly gotten bored. Monk Gyatso had tried to make it more fun by helping him meditate on how it felt when he was bending, and on how he could use his bending for other people, but Monk Pasang had been all about _empty your mind, Aang_ , and _reflect on your worldly concerns, Aang_. Monk Tashi had been even _worse_ , with all his talk about the responsibilities of the Avatar, and how Aang would have to learn them even more quickly than the other Avatars, because he was being told so young.

“How does it help?” Aang asked as he sat down with Zuko. He couldn’t see how meditating on worldly concerns would help with being a firebender. “What do you meditate on?”

Zuko placed an unlit candle between them, and lit it by touching the wick. “The candle’s on fire, right?”

“Sure. You gonna bend it?” Even if Katara and Sokka didn’t trust Zuko, Aang still kind of wanted to see him do some cool firebending tricks.

Disappointingly, Zuko shook his head. “Firebenders don’t just bend external fire. We have fire in our spirits. It’s what makes us different to earthbenders, waterbenders, or even airbenders.”

Aang hadn’t heard Kuzon say anything like _that_ about his inner flame. “So you’re on fire?”

That made Zuko smile, for some reason. It wasn’t much of a smile, but it was still there. “In a way. To bend my inner flame, I have to know what I’m bending – know my spirit. The meditation helps me to know myself and my fire. It reminds me of who I am.”

“That doesn’t sound a lot like the meditation the monks made me do,” Aang admitted.

“What was that like?” Zuko asked.

Aang was momentarily distracted by how Zuko was making the candle brighten and dim. “Mostly a lot of talk about earthly attachments and worldly passions, and stuff like that.”

“Firebenders talk about passion, too,” Zuko said. “Uncle helped me see that my firebending is fueled by passionate emotion.”

Aang frowned. “Is that a good thing?”

“It’s just a thing, I think.” Zuko shrugged. “My sister doesn’t bend like that, but… I used to think it was a bad thing, but I think I’m okay with it, now.”

“How does your sister fuel her bending?” Aang asked. “Is she good?”

Zuko pulled a face, and Aang remembered belated what he’d said about his family being _complicated_. “She’s really good.”

He teased the candle flame high enough that he could split a second flame off from it and make it dance around his fingers. Aang watched, entranced, until Zuko made the little glow vanish.

“It’s just a fancy trick,” Zuko said, catching Aang’s eye. “It’s not anything like what my sister can do, but – she doesn’t do anything like that. She sees bending as a tool, it’s – it’s there to help her achieve her goals. Uncle says bending can be an art.”

“Monk Gyatso used to say that freedom and fun were the key to airbending,” Aang remembered fondly. “If you aren’t having fun when you bend, it weighs you down and makes you heavy. Then you can’t move with the air.”

Zuko thought about it. “I don’t think _fun_ fuels my bending. It’s not my passion. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

“Why not?” Aang thought that trick with the little flame had been really cool! If he could do that, he’d have _tons_ of fun. He thought Momo might like chasing the little glow around, too. “What fuels your bending?”

“Doing the right thing,” Zuko said decisively. “When I know that I’m doing the right thing, my inner flame is brighter. It’s what I’m passionate about; what drives me.”

Aang considered it for a moment. “I don’t really understand it,” he confessed. “But I think that sounds like a good way to bend.”

“I think so too,” Zuko agreed. “I hope so, anyway. Why’s it difficult for you to understand?”

Aang shrugged. “I don’t really use anything to _help_ me bend – I could just always bend, so it’s kind of weird for me to think about _fueling_ it.”

“Maybe that’s just your airbending,” Zuko answered thoughtfully. “Maybe when it’s time for you to learn firebending, you’ll need to know what fuels you – drives you, inspires you. What’re you passionate about?”

Aang didn’t really know how to answer that. Zuko had said he wasn’t really that passionate about fun; he didn’t think the older boy would be very impressed if he told Zuko he had been really passionate about riding the elephant koi blindfolded. “Um…”

Zuko seemed to take his reluctance as confusion, and nodded encouragingly. “That’s cool. You’ve got time to think about it. You’ve still got to learn water and earth before you learn fire.”

Aang frowned. “Can’t you teach me firebending first, though? I mean, you’re here, we’ve still got _ages_ to go before we reach the North Pole…”

Zuko shook his head. “The Avatar Cycle follows a pattern for a reason. Uncle says it’s a bad idea for mortals to mess with the spirits.”

“What?” Aang wasn’t sure about that. “I’m the Avatar, though. Doesn’t that mean I can do that stuff?”

Zuko did look a bit sympathetic. “Trust me, Aang, I don’t really care about messing with the spirits either. But this was, like, the one thing Uncle told me not to do.” He paused. “That, and to not just use the knotweed tile all the time in Pai Sho."

Aang deflated. “Fair enough.”

But Zuko must have spotted that he was a little disappointed, because he gave him an encouraging smile. “We can always practice your airbending, though.”

Whenever Monk Tashi had said stuff like that, he’d always sounded super impatient. Aang gave Zuko a confused look, and gestured to his tattoos. “But I’m a master already.”

Zuko’s small smile became a smirk. “Trust me, Aang,” he got to his feet and held out a hand to help Aang up. “There’s _always_ more to learn.”

…

Sokka had woken up to an empty tent, and immediately assumed the worst. That bastard firebender had gone after Aang while he was asleep!

He’d grabbed his boomerang and charged out of the tent, not even bothering to pull his hair back or put his shirt on. He spotted the dark-haired enemy with Aang – _Tui_ , he’d already gotten to him!

“Get away from him, you ash-breathing bastard!” He yelled, throwing his boomerang just like his Dad had shown him.

Aang’s head popped up from behind Zuko’s back. He was smiling. Unharmed. _Oh, boy…_ “Oh, hey Sokka!”

Zuko began to turn. _Ohhhh boy_ … “Sokka, I swear to Agni, if you –”

Aang let out a shout as Sokka’s boomerang came crashing into the back of Zuko’s head. His eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped to the ground.

“What did you _do?_ ” Aang cried, dropping to his knees. The monk’s hands hovered over Zuko’s head before he looked back at Sokka accusingly. “You just _boomeranged_ him!”

“It was an accident!” Sokka defended himself as he crouched down to check on the firebender. “I didn’t know what was happening!”

He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that Zuko was still breathing. He’d never killed anyone before – he’d hunted for the Tribe, yes, but he’d never killed a _person_. If his first kill had been the result of a misunderstanding, that would have been hard to explain to Dad. And to Aang, who was looking pretty upset at how Sokka had started his day.

“Well, he didn’t know what was happening, either!” Aang shouted. “And it wasn’t an _accident_ , you threw your boomerang at him!”

“I thought he’d gone after you,” Sokka explained. “I was trying to keep you _safe_ , Aang!”

“Zuko wasn’t doing anything wrong!” Aang made a frustrated face. “He was helping me practice my bending, that’s all!”

“What’s going on?” Katara poked her head out of her tent, looking exceptionally grumpy. Oh, boy, Sokka had seen that look before. A Katara who was rudely awoken before she was ready to emerge from her slumber was an angry Katara.

“Sokka hit Zuko with his boomerang and knocked him out!” Aang said before Sokka could respond.

At least Katara was on Sokka’s side, he thought, as he shared a look with his sister. She gave him a small nod before turning back to Aang. “Is he still alive?”

“He’s breathing,” Aang reported, double-checking to be on the safe side.

“What was he doing?” Katara asked, walking towards them and tugging a comb through her hair. Sokka didn’t want to point out that she was probably fighting a losing battle there, with all those tangles.

“He wasn’t doing anything!” Aang told her, looking at Sokka with a combination of disappointment, earnestness and nervousness. “He was already awake when I got up, so we talked about meditating, and then he was helping me with my bending, and then Sokka came out and yelled at him and hit him with his boomerang!”

“I didn’t know he was helping, though,” Sokka interjected before Aang could make him out to be the bad guy here. “I woke up and saw that he’d just _gone_ without saying anything – what was I supposed to think?”

“Sokka’s right, Aang,” Katara said gently. “I know you think Zuko isn’t our enemy, but he’s from the Fire Nation, and he hasn’t done anything to make us trust him.”

“Just because he’s from the Fire Nation doesn’t mean he’s a bad person,” Aang insisted.

“We get that, Aang,” Sokka tried to explain. “It’s more like – look, Katara and me, we don’t know anyone from the Fire Nation, okay? I know you had your buddy Kuzon,” he added before Aang could interrupt. “But we’ve never met a firebender we could trust. So Zuko’s got to prove we can trust him – and hiding the fact that he’s a firebender doesn’t _help_ with that.”

“Well, maybe he knew that you were going to try and kill him with a boomerang if you knew he was a firebender!” Aang tried again.

“If he’d just _told_ us, he wouldn’t have to worry about this,” Katara told Aang firmly. “Aang, at the South Pole, everyone knows each other. You know them, you know their parents, and you know what their family’s like. If you can’t trust their family, you can’t trust them; well, we can’t trust the Fire Nation, so we don’t know if we can trust Zuko.”

Aang looked from Katara to Sokka, and then back to Zuko. “But he wasn’t doing anything _wrong_ ,” he managed.

Sokka’s Mom hadn’t been doing anything wrong either, he thought to himself darkly. No – they had to keep an eye on Zuko.

“What were you guys doing, anyway,” he asked, trying to distract Aang. “You said he was helping you with your bending?”

Aang still looked a bit worried about Zuko, but he pointed to a few acorns and marbles scattered on the floor. “He got me bending these.”

“Is your marbles trick now an acorns trick?” Sokka asked with some trepidation. He’d gotten kind of annoyed at the whistling noise it made; if Zuko was _encouraging_ Aang with that dumb trick, he was going to be feeling a lot less guilty about knocking him out.

Not that he felt _guilty_.

“Zuko didn’t seem to like my marbles trick,” Aang admitted, a bit sheepishly. “He said bending the marbles really quickly in a small circle was cool, but it wasn’t, like, _master airbender_ stuff.”

“Shows how much he knows,” Katara muttered.

Aang shook his head. “No, he’s right – I was doing this when I was, like, seven. It’s actually really easy, that’s why Zuko wanted me to try something different. Check it out!”

Sokka looked on in bemusement as Aang gathered up his half-dozen marbles and about the same number of acorns, before handing them to him.

“Can you toss up a marble for me?” He asked with a grin. _Ah_ , Sokka was more familiar with this Aang, who wanted to show off a cool trick.

“Sure.” He chucked a marble up, and as it fell in a slow arc, Aang took a hold of it and made it float in a circle in front of him.

“Can you do an acorn next?” He requested, and Sokka obliged. It joined the marble in midair. “See, bending them this slowly, in such a big circle, actually takes more control than bending the marbles really, really quickly in a really small circle. Can you keep giving me stuff, Sokka?”

Katara watched on as Sokka gave Aang one, then two more marbles and acorns each, until there were six little objects circling in mid-air. When Sokka tossed up an extra acorn for Aang to bring into the orbit, it wobbled slightly. Aang sighed, and brought them all back into his hand.

“It’s a lot harder than it looks,” he said. “But I was doing really well, right?”

He smiled hopefully at Sokka, who in truth had been completely unaware that bending like that was supposed to be master-airbender stuff. It was just making stuff spin in a circle.

“Wow,” he said instead. “That’s really cool, Aang.”

At that point, Zuko groaned, and whilst it was complete _slush_ that Sokka had to deal with an irate firebender, at least he didn’t have to pretend like he knew what Aang was doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare’ is a quote from _The Art of War_ , by [Sun Tzu](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu).


	8. Chapter 8

So as it turned out, Zuko knew a lot about bending because he _was_ a bender. A _firebender_.

She should have seen it coming, Katara thought furiously to herself. How uptight he’d been about his past, how he’d been so careful not to share anything about his past or his bending – his favorite drink was _shōgayu_ , for Tui’s sake!

Katara didn’t need to know what kind of drink that was to know that it was _Fire Nation!_

And he’d managed to sneak his way onto Appa! All that stuff he’d been saying… it was his _Fire Nation_ sister, his home in the _Fire Nation_ , his _firebending_. When he’d been offering to teach her bending, he’d been offering to teach her how to bend _fire_.

No matter how much she wanted to bend, she would _never_ turn her back on her people like that!

But that didn’t mean it didn’t _hurt_ , she acknowledged silently to herself, as she watched Aang sit with the dark-haired boy and practice with his marbles. She had to sit here and watch Aang and Zuko talk about fine motor control and advanced bending techniques, sharing stories of Monk Gyatso and Uncle Iroh. She had sat down and played Pai Sho with Iroh, and he’d been one of the _ashmakers_ all along.

And whilst she was happy that Aang was learning to bend more precisely, and to focus his breathing and his movements to hone his small bending movements, she couldn’t say she was happy about who was teaching him.

“Why doesn’t he get it?” She asked Sokka as they sat down in the forest. On a grassy plateau above them, Aang was laughing at some joke Zuko must have made. “Why does he trust him?”

“He hasn’t _done_ anything yet, that’s why,” Sokka replied. Zuko was giving Aang a small smile as he gestured at the marbles Aang was bending.

“He’s trying to trick him,” she said firmly. “Trying to trick _us_.”

Sokka sighed. “I don’t know, sis. Surely it would have been easier for him to just attack us when we _didn’t_ know he was a firebender.”

“You _trust_ him?” She rounded on him, disbelief coloring her words. “How can you trust him?”

“I don’t _trust_ him,” Sokka replied, holding his hands up. “I never said that, okay? I just – I don’t _distrust_ him, you know? I’m just… keeping an eye on him.”

They both tensed as fire sparked up in Zuko’s hand, but Aang just leaned in closer and pointed up at the sky. Katara couldn’t hear what he was saying, but Zuko seemed to be listening intently. He blinked, his serious golden eyes hinting at something like surprise, before he responded.

“I’m just worried about Aang,” she confessed lowly. “He seems to really trust Zuko; I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“That’s why we’re here, Katara,” Sokka reassured her. “It’s why Gran-Gran made me come with you guys, remember? To protect you.”

Katara bit her lip. “But Zuko said Bumi had sent him to protect Aang, too.”

“Well, whoever’s supposed to be protecting Aang from whoever, we can’t protect him on an empty stomach.” Sokka got to his feet and rolled his shoulders. “I’m gonna go find some dinner, okay?”

“Hurry back,” Katara requested. As much as she hated to admit it, Sokka _was_ older than her, and a more skilled fighter. If she’d known that she’d be travelling with a firebender, she would probably have been more willing to take Suki up on those hand-to-hand sessions she had offered.

Aang looked happy to see her when she joined him on the higher ground. “Hey, Katara! Zuko and I were just about to practice our bending! Did you want to come give it a try?”

If Aang had asked Katara a week ago, back when Zuko was just the boy sitting up front on Appa with her, listening to her talk about how she was so excited to reach the North Pole and _finally_ learn to bend, whether she’d want to sit with them and practice her bending, she would have jumped at the chance. But now Zuko wasn’t a boy from the Earth Kingdom, he was an unknown stranger from the Fire Nation, and Katara wasn’t going to let her guard down around him.

“I’ll just sit and watch,” she said instead as she settled herself on the grass, giving Zuko a challenging look.

He seemed remarkably unaffected by it, just like he had been for the past week. All Katara’s threatening looks, all her silent warnings, none of them seemed to affect him. They just slid off him like water off an otter penguin’s back.

“You’ve got to feel a connection to your element,” Zuko was saying. “For me, it comes down to desire and will. It’s what – inspires me, I guess. That’s how I connect to my inner fire. For you, air’s a free element. So I guess that connection comes down to… freedom?” He paused and looked at Aang for something. “What do you think?”

Aang trailed his hand through the grass and made a thoughtful sound. “I don’t really know how that connection works. Like, it’s more like there’s no… _not_ connection?”

“How’s that different?” Katara asked, interested despite herself. She told herself she was just trying to help Aang understand, but maybe she also wanted to learn a bit more, too.

Aang waved at Zuko. “Okay, so what Zuko’s saying sounds like he’s got to find the reason for his connection. His connection is desire and will, and that’s what helps him tap into his firebending. But for me, it’s like… I just think there’s no reason why I _can’t_ airbend, you know? It’s air. It’s _there_.” He laughed suddenly. “That rhymes!”

“Okay, mister master poet,” Katara teased him. “So do you need to know what you’re trying to tap into before you can tap into freedom?”

“That might actually be it,” Zuko interrupted. She scowled at him and he averted his eyes, but he continued on anyway. “Your mindset is that you’re free from constraints and restrictions. You can just _bend_. That’s – that’s freeing, in a way.”

Aang grinned. “So you’re saying I don’t need to worry about constraints and restrictions?”

“Sure,” Zuko said dryly. “But don’t tell Monk Tashi I said that.”

Aang giggled, and for a moment, Katara was so _angry_ that this firebender was talking with Aang about one of his old mentors.

The Fire Nation had _murdered_ the Air Nomads! They had _killed_ Monk Gyatso! And Zuko got to just _sit_ there and laugh about a man he’d never met, who’d _been there_ in Aang’s childhood!

She was just about to say something when Sokka returned, loudly saying something about how foraging in the forest was totally different to hunting at the South Pole.

“Great,” Aang cheered. “You’re back!” He hopped off the tree root he was sitting on, and was gone in a flash. “What’s for dinner?”

In the silence that followed, Katara looked at Zuko, and rather than meet his golden eyes, hurried down to meet Sokka.

…

Aang had been pretty disappointed with Sokka’s attempts at dinner, but to find a _real_ earthbender was pretty cool. Haru seemed really nice, and Katara seemed to like him a lot more than she’d liked Zuko.

Aang felt pretty bad about the way his friends were treating Zuko, but it wasn’t like he could just tell them to be nice to him. He’d already tried that after their first morning camping, and although they’d nodded and told him that they wouldn’t be throwing boomerangs at Zuko again, they still weren’t _nice_ to him. They were sort of treating him like the kids at the Air Temple had treated Aang after he’d been named as the new Avatar; just kind of avoiding him, trying not to talk to him too much, and talking amongst themselves.

When he’d tried to tell Zuko that they didn’t really mean it, and they were just taking some time to adjust to the new person in their group, Zuko had just shrugged.

“I’m not the new person anymore,” he pointed out, setting out his bedroll and taking off his boots. “Haru is. And they seem to like him.”

Aang looked out the door of the barn. Katara and Haru had gone on a walk, and the last Aang had seen them, Katara had been nodding along as Haru talked happily about his village.

“Well, maybe she’s just really interested in how mining works?” He tried, but Zuko shook his head.

“It’s fine, Aang,” he said, settling down on his bedroll. “I don’t care if no one likes me. I’m kind of used to it.”

Aang frowned at that. “I like you, Zuko. Don’t feel bad about them; they’ll come around. Sometimes it takes a while for people to see that they were wrong about someone. But if they keep an open mind, and an open heart, I know they’ll see the truth eventually.”

Zuko’s face got kind of weird at that, and Aang wondered if that was the wrong thing to say. But then he shook his head and seemed to collect himself and come to his senses.

“Thanks, Aang,” he said. “Uncle used to say something like that.”

From what Zuko had been telling Aang about his Uncle Iroh over the past week, Aang knew that was a compliment. He smiled. “So that’s you telling me I’m right?”

Zuko let out that little cough-breath that Aang thought counted as a laugh. “Right like Tashi.”

Aang pouted. Being compared to Monk Tashi _wasn’t_ so much of a compliment.

Sokka had been with them, but he had left them alone, saying he was going to _scout the perimeter_ , whatever that meant. Haru’s mother had said they could stay in the barn for the evening, and although Aang and Sokka had been pretty happy to have a roof over their heads, Katara had been kind of awkward about accepting the family’s hospitality. That was, until Zuko had rolled his eyes and brought two silver pieces out of nowhere.

“For your generosity,” he had said, putting it on the counter.

Haru’s mom had looked really surprised at the money, and said something about how it wasn’t a big deal, they didn’t have to pay _that_ much, but Zuko had shook his head.

“That’s why they call it generosity,” he had explained.

Aang thought that had been really cool of Zuko, but he wondered whether part of it was because he felt guilty that the Fire Nation soldiers had taken the old lady’s money.

“Why’d you give Haru’s mom that money?” He asked, figuring that if he wanted an answer, he might as well ask.

“Because she’s being generous,” Zuko replied.

“Sokka said earlier that you didn’t have to give her _that_ much. He thinks you could have kept some of it back and we could have spent it better in some other way.”

“Sokka didn’t know I had the money in the first place,” Zuko pointed out. “So he wouldn’t get a say in how I spent it.”

Aang frowned. “That’s not really how we do things – Katara, Sokka and me.”

“I know.” Zuko sighed. “I’m sorry. I have a bit of money my Uncle gave me – it’s not much, but we can talk about how to spend it as a group, next time.”

“Okay!” Aang was happier with that. “Do you wanna practice bending again tonight?”

“Maybe not tonight,” Zuko said. “If they catch you bending, they might tell the soldiers. If they catch me bending, we might be asked to leave.”

“Oh.” Aang sighed, and resigned himself to another night where nothing really much happened.

And, for the most part, nothing _did_ happen; at least until Katara came back. Aang couldn’t believe it – whilst he and Zuko had been talking about the different places they’d visited, and occasionally tried to get Sokka involved only to be told that Sokka wasn’t interested in hearing their _tourist tales_ , Katara and Haru had saved an old man’s life!

“So Haru’s earthbending saved that old man?” Aang asked, trying to picture it in his head. Haru had seemed so gentle and shy, but the way Katara had said it, he must have been really brave to bend so publicly – and he’d rescued that old man, too! That was really impressive.

Katara nodded. “It was so brave of Haru to use his earthbending to help that old man.”

Aang beamed. That had been exactly what he had been thinking! “You must have really inspired him,” he offered.

Katara gave him a warm smile in return. “I guess so.”

“Did the old man say anything once you got him out?” Zuko asked.

The warm smile on Katara’s face became a flat line as she turned her attention to Zuko. “No.”

“Really? He didn’t say anything about Pai Sho, or –”

“He didn’t say anything, Zuko,” Katara interrupted. “And I wouldn’t tell you if he did. Although you’d probably want to go and find out what he said _yourself_ –”

“Everyone should get some sleep,” Sokka commanded wearily. “We’re leaving at dawn.”

“Dawn?” Katara groaned. “Can’t we sleep in for once?”

Aang watched Katara’s anger switch from Zuko to Sokka, and hoped that he wasn’t next. He’d probably have to be quiet, just in case.

“Absolutely not!” Sokka declared firmly. “This village is crawling with Fire Nation troops. If they discover you're here, Aang, we'll be eating fireballs for breakfast.”

Aang gulped. Maybe he’d have to be quiet for _multiple_ reasons.

“Goodnight,” Sokka finished in a decisive tone that brooked no arguments.

“I'd rather eat fireballs than nuts,” Katara muttered.

“Goodnight!”

Even though he’d wanted to be quiet, Aang couldn’t help but giggle, and Katara laughed along too. He thought he could hear Zuko laugh too, from his bedroll in the corner near the door, but it could have just been a sigh.

…

Sokka had been having a lovely dream about surfing an otter penguin in Kyoshi Bay when he’d been woken up by Aang’s laughter.

“Wuzzgoinuh?” He asked groggily, but in truth, he didn’t really want the answer. Suki had been in his dream… Mm, Suki…

“Sokka!” Aang whispered, his voice shaking with what appeared to be more laughter. “Sokka, check it out!”

“It’s not _funny_ , Aang,” came an exceptionally grumpy voice. A voice that grumpy probably belonged to Zuko, unless Katara had been woken up before she _wanted_ to be woken up. “Get him off me before I burn a hole in his fur.”

Definitely Zuko, Sokka decided.

The thought of Zuko being put out about something amused him as much as it seemed to be amusing Aang, so he propped himself up on an elbow and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes to get a good look.

Oh, _man_ , he chuckled to himself. Appa was sitting _right_ on Zuko, snoring away without a care in the world! There was a sky bison living his best life now, Sokka thought wistfully. And Zuko did _not_ look happy about it – even with that mottled scar spreading over his left eye, Sokka could see the scowl.

“Everything okay there, Zuko?” He called, getting out of his sleeping bag and stretching.

“Fuck off, Sokka,” he grumbled. Katara must not have been around, then, Sokka decided, if he was just swearing it up at this time of day. In front of _Aang_ , no less!

Yeah, Katara would _not_ have been happy if she’d been around to hear that.

“Appa wanted to hang out, huh?” He decided to give Zuko a bit more needling. He needed more fun in his life. “You wanna say yip a couple times, see what happens?”

“Don’t say it, Zuko,” Aang said hastily. “Appa’s smart, but it’s sort of a reflex thing with him – I don’t know if he’ll actually start flying if you say it, and I don’t want him to break this barn roof.”

“If you don’t get him off me, Aang,” Zuko answered with forced calm. “I’m gonna say it in three – two –”

Whether Zuko was going to be responsible for at least thirty gold coins’ worth of property damage, Sokka would never find out, because it was at that moment that Katara burst into the barn. Her eyes were red, and her shoulders were heaving. She must have run all the way here – but from where?

“They took him,” she gasped, and Sokka’s stomach turned over. “They took Haru away!”

“What?” Aang gasped.

“The old man turned him in to the Fire Nation,” Katara groaned and hid her face. “It's all my fault – I forced him into earthbending!”

Sokka wasn’t sure how Zuko had managed to escape out from under Appa, but he was suddenly standing in front of Katara.

“It’s not your fault,” he said firmly. “You did the right thing. If he can’t see that, then he’s to blame. Not you.”

Katara looked up at him confusedly, and Sokka couldn’t blame her. It was probably better if he tried to handle this.

“Slow down, Katara,” he began, putting an arm on her shoulder and trying to calm her down. “When did this happen?”

Katara had heard the story from Haru’s mom; the old man had brought a whole bunch of Fire Nation soldiers to their house in the middle of the night, and when Haru had answered the door, ratted him out!

That guy was a _bastard_ , Sokka thought angrily to himself. What kind of kooky old dude sold someone out to the Fire Nation for saving his life? That was crazy!

Not as crazy as Katara, though, who seemed to be crazy in a whole different kind of way. Crazy in a _Bumi_ way, as in, the kind of way that made a person think that sending a firebender along with them with no warning whatsoever was a good idea. Crazy in a way that meant your immediate future involved firebenders and a high chance of danger.

“You want to get yourself _arrested?_ ” He asked in faint disbelief. “For _earthbending?_ Katara, if that plan is a meal, it’s one-flavor soup. And that flavor is _crazy_.”

“I don’t know about this, Katara,” Aang agreed tentatively. “How are you going to get yourself arrested for earthbending? You’re not an earthbender.”

“Warfare is based on deception,” Zuko said. He had folded his arms and was frowning at the floor. “You need to trick them, somehow.”

Katara nodded. “I’m going to get arrested in the mines. Can you help me?”

Sokka was a bit surprised that Katara would ask Zuko for help. Zuko appeared to be, too. “Me?”

“ _No_ ,” Karara replied forcefully, and okay, Sokka was more familiar with this. “No – _you’d_ probably go straight to the Fire Nation soldiers and sell us out, like the old man. You can stay here – Haru’s mom is in _pieces_ , she’s so upset.”

Zuko blinked in confusion. “And you think I’m the best person to comfort her?”

“You could make her that ginseng tea your uncle likes?” Aang suggested.

“Chamomile might be better,” Zuko said, but Sokka could see he was just thinking out loud.

He wasn’t sure that Katara was thinking _at all_ as he turned back to her. “Sis,” he began, trying to keep his cool. “Not that I’m at all concerned that Haru hit you in the head with a boulder last night – but are you out of your _mind?_ You can’t earthbend!”

“No,” Katara agreed, turning to face him. Oh, man, Sokka knew that look. She’d given him that look when he’d been ready to go out fishing in his canoe without her. It was one of those _I’m determined to do this and you’re not going to stop me_. They’d ended up waking the Avatar up the last time he’d seen that look on Katara’s face.

 _Please don’t let her wake up another crazy spirit_ , he pleaded with whatever hopefully non-crazy spirit would hear him.

“But the mines are open, anyone can go in there,” Katara continued. “We can figure something out, right? We just need to figure out how to make the earth move.”

“Or make it look like the earth is moving,” Zuko agreed. “Aang?”

The kid looked a little worried about what was coming next. “Huh?”

“You’ve been practicing bending small objects, right?”

“Uh… yeah?”

A slow smile spread across Zuko’s face. “Now we’re bending _big_.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Are you _sure_ you don’t just want me to turn you in to the authorities?” Zuko asked.

“I’m _sure_ ,” Katara replied shortly, pausing to wipe her brow with her sleeve. Sokka let out a warning grunt as the boulder started slipping backwards now that only one person was pushing it, and Zuko stepped in to help him steady it.

“It’s just – the way you said it, it sounded like they just took the old man’s word for it. So maybe it would be easier than trying to set all this up.”

“We’re doing it my way,” Katara declared, pushing him out of the way and retaking her place with Sokka. “We’re gonna – do this earthbending – so they’ve got no choice but to arrest me.”

Zuko looked bemusedly after the two siblings as they continued to push the boulder along the track. And Uncle had thought _he_ was stubborn.

“I could have just bent the boulders along,” Aang said. “They know that, right?”

“I didn’t know you could earthbend,” Zuko said in surprise.

“Oh.” Aang cringed. “No, but I could airbend them. Actually, I probably should have mentioned that earlier. When you and Sokka pushed the first boulder.”

“You said earlier that you couldn’t bend huge objects for a long period of time.”

“That was three days ago,” Aang defended himself. “And that boulder isn’t _huge_ , it’s just… big.”

“No, it’s definitely huge,” Sokka wheezed, bent over with his hands on his knees. “I’m, like, _strong_ , but that really took it out of me.”

“I told you I could have helped,” Zuko reminded him.

“And I didn’t tell you, but I can help next time?” Aang offered.

Sokka gave him a disbelieving look, but he must have been too out of breath to pick a fight, because he just shook his head. “I thought you were crazy at first, Katara, but this might work.” He wiped a hand over his face, but became more enthusiastic as he stood up. “There are ventilation shafts throughout these mines. All Aang has to do is send an air current from that vent to this one right here. The boulder levitates, and _ta-da!_ Fake earthbending!”

Katara nodded, putting her hands on her hips and surveying their setup with satisfaction. “Aang? Did you get all that?”

“Sure,” Aang mumbled. “Sure, I got it.”

Zuko rolled his eyes and gave Aang’s shoulder a quick shake. “Wake up, Aang.”

“Huh?”

“Do you remember your cue?” Sokka asked. With his little sister in danger, the Water Tribe boy was a lot more focused than he’d been earlier, when he had been bemoaning the foolishness of this plan. Zuko could understand him being a bit worried.

Azula didn’t _need_ his concern, but being a big brother meant he couldn’t help but feel it. Nearly three years at sea didn’t change that.

“Yeah, yeah!” Aang gave Sokka a big smile. “Just relax. You're taking all the fun out of this!”

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. _Airbenders_.

Sokka looked aggravated, too. “By this, do you mean intentionally being captured by a group of ruthless firebenders?”

“Exactly,” Aang grinned. “That’s fun stuff! You thought Zuko was a ruthless firebender, but Appa likes him enough to sit on him – so they’re not going to be _that_ bad, right?”

Zuko groaned. When he’d been hoping to make an ally out of the Avatar, he hadn’t been expecting to be Aang’s sole point of reference for how firebenders behaved a hundred years later. Perhaps he should have expected something like this.

He was going to _kill_ Bumi. He hadn’t given Aang _any_ useful information at all!

“Come on,” he muttered instead, steering Aang behind their second boulder and crouching down with him. “Listen for your cue.”

Aang missed his cue, which Zuko should probably have expected, in all honesty. The airbender’s head was in the clouds half the time, why would it be any different when Katara and Sokka were up against a group of firebenders?

“ _That’s your cue,_ ” he hissed, at the same time Katara repeated her line in a similarly aggravated tone.

Aang jolted back to the real world, “Oh, right!”

The blast of wind he sent through the ventilation shaft made Zuko instinctively raise his hands to cover his watering eyes. From a few startled cries the guards let out, he’d thought at first they were having a similar reaction, until one of them opened their mouth.

“That lemur! He’s earthbending!”

_What?_

What were they teaching in the public education system in the colonies?

“Zuko?” Aang whispered urgently. “Is Momo an earthbender?”

_Oh, for Agni’s sake…_

Zuko couldn’t remember Uncle telling him about any formal education system amongst the Air Nomads. It probably explained a lot.

“No, you _idiot!_ ” Sokka yelled. “It’s the girl!”

Aang flushed. “Oh.”

“Monkeyfeathers,” Zuko muttered to himself.

“It’s just that earlier, Momo was dropping some nuts,” Aang tried to explain himself, before Sokka joined them.

“I don’t want to hear anything about Momo,” he declared emphatically. “Stupid, big-eared lemur,” he added as an afterthought.

Momo chattered and poked at Sokka’s head, which Zuko approved of.

“They’ll have taken her to the prison rig,” he said instead of voicing that approval. Sokka was probably under enough stress already without worrying about the size of his ears. “We can probably get there in about twenty minutes on Appa.”

Sokka was already shaking his head by the time he finished his sentence. “No way, buddy. Katara already said it – that prison rig is gonna be _crawling_ with jerkbenders. We’re not giving you the chance to sell us out.”

Zuko was stunned. “ _What?_ ” He choked out. “You’re going up against _firebenders_ , Sokka. You’re taking _Aang_ with you, but not me?”

If Uncle found out that the Avatar had been captured on Zuko’s watch because Katara had gotten herself arrested and Sokka had attempted to break her out of a Fire Nation prison rig whilst Zuko was making chamomile tea for an old lady, he would never let Zuko hear the end of it.

“I don’t want Aang going either,” Sokka admitted. “But we need Appa, and Katara needs backup.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do, then?” Zuko asked angrily. “I’m not sticking around here, making tea for Haru’s mom!”

Sokka shrugged. “I don’t know, man. Go foraging in the woods – find some nuts. _Real_ nuts, not those rock nuts.”

“You could try and make friends with the people in the village?” Aang offered.

Zuko and Sokka exchanged an uneasy glance at that one. Zuko thought it was their first moment of real camaraderie.

“How about you just find that old man and kick him in the crotch?” Sokka suggested.

Zuko thought that sounded like an excellent plan. He could imagine it was Bumi as he did it.

But as appealing as the thought was, he knew there was something else he could be doing. “I’ll figure something out.”

“Where’re you going?” Sokka called after him as he set off running.

“The barn!” Zuko shouted back.

In his bag, there was a mask and a pair of dao swords. Maybe Sokka didn’t want to take Zuko along for backup. But there was definitely someone else who could help.

…

“It’s almost dawn,” Katara said as she peered into the air duct. Sokka could hear the tension in her voice, and her knuckles were white as she gripped the rim of the tunnel. “We’re running out of time. You sure this is gonna work?”

“It should,” Sokka muttered. He’d run through the plan a couple of times in his head, and even as he was saying it out loud now, it still seemed like a pretty good one. He just hoped that nothing would go wrong – he didn’t know the layout of this prison rig very well, and if he had to improvise a new plan off the top of his head, he wasn’t sure how that would turn out.

Sokka didn’t like having to improvise – it usually meant you hadn’t counted all the possibilities, and you hadn’t planned for something. That’s why Dad had always told him to be careful when he went out on the ice. If you didn’t count the possibility of the ice giving way beneath you, you could end up _screwed_.

“There’s the intruder!”

Sokka gulped. Oh, slush, that was just _typical_. Just as he finished explaining his brilliant plan, he ended up being surrounded by guards. That had definitely _not_ been included in his plan.

But Dad had told him in a few of his letters how his plans hadn’t always gone to plan – and he’d stuck it out with some Water Tribe ingenuity and courage, and come out on top. Sokka wasn’t going to back down now!

“Stay back!” He pulled out his boomerang, slashing it in warning. “I’m warning you!”

He kept an eye on the guards as he stood back-to-back with Katara, at least until Aang came through with bringing the coal up onto the deck. Then, Katara abruptly ran away from his back and climbed up onto the coal to shout at the earthbenders about hope.

Hope was _great_ , but it wasn’t really watching Sokka’s back right about now!

But thankfully Tui must have been watching Sokka’s back, or at least _one_ of the spirits, because it looked like Haru had had just about enough of the warden’s shit. Sokka couldn’t blame him; that warden guy just had one of those faces.

Haru’s dad must have been fed up of all the gloating and sneering and monologuing too, because the next thing Sokka knew, the earthbenders were fighting back! He’d never seen anyone bending like that before – all together, like a surging wave moving forward to push the guards and firebenders backwards.

Sokka didn’t have time to get his club out, so he did the next best thing – he used his boomerang to chop through the soldiers’ spears, tossing them up for Momo to grab with his tail. After spending so long grabbing Sokka’s snacks and lychee nuts, the lemur was _finally_ coming in handy.

“Get to the ships!” The old earthbender shouted. “We’ll hold them off!”

That must have been Haru’s father. He was pretty cool, Sokka had to admit. But there wasn’t any way he was as cool as Sokka’s Dad!

“Guys,” Aang shouted, getting Sokka’s attention. “Throw me some coal!”

What? Sokka was pretty sure Aang hadn’t learnt earthbending yet… But as Katara tossed a heap of coal his way, and Aang sent it spraying towards the firebenders in a rapid-fire flurry, Sokka remembered what his Gran-Gran had always said. There’s always more than one way to skin a croco-cat.

Aang was making a blizzard out of coal!

“Come on!” Sokka shouted to Katara. “Let’s get to the barge!”

As Aang and Katara scrambled after him, Sokka realized he had no idea which direction the ships were in. He took a left, hoping that maybe it would lead to stairs. Or a map – a map would be great. Or even a sign with directions!

Instead, he yelped as he rounded a blind corner and found himself in a corridor with at least half a dozen Fire Nation soldiers!

He skidded to a half, but stumbled forward as Katara let out a squeal and continued running, straight into his shoulder. His head smacked painfully against the wall.

“Why’re they all on the ground?” He asked stupidly.

“It’s okay!” Aang said, stepping forward and toeing at one of them. “I think they’re unconscious,” he said, sounding confused. Sokka was feeling pretty confused, too!

“Did I hit them with a boomerang?” He double-checked.

“I think you hit something,” Katara told him, checking his face. “Come on – Aang, can you get us out of here?”

“Sure!” Aang nodded. “Is Sokka okay?”

Katara held up her left hand. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

With an effort, Sokka concentrated. “Two?”

Katara nodded. “Good enough.” She tugged on his jacket around his shoulder. “Come on!”

Aang managed to lead them through the rig to the ship, and when they finally got onto the boat, Sokka felt a whole lot more comfortable. It didn’t matter if it was a canoe or a coracle or a straight-up boat, Sokka was Water Tribe. Life on the water would _always_ be preferable to being stuck on a Fire Nation prison rig.

But maybe he would have stayed on the rig if he’d known that escaping meant he would be stuck with his little sister talking with an earthbender kid who seemed really, _really_ keen to get to know her. _Gross_.

“I want to thank you for saving me,” Haru was saying. “For saving us,” he corrected himself.

Sokka would have rolled his eyes, but his head kind of hurt. That guy was _not_ subtle.

Katara looked a little embarrassed by the way Haru was looking at her. Sokka felt a little bit grossed out. “All it took was a little coal.”

“It wasn't the coal, Katara. It was you.”

 _Yep._ Definitely a little grossed out. Sokka had barely signed up for a prison break – he hadn’t signed up to get the _oogies_ as well. He wondered whether he should take Haru aside and give him a few tips in how to talk to girls. He didn’t like to brag, but Suki was a pretty awesome girl, and Sokka had managed to impress her enough to be given a kiss on the cheek when they’d had to leave Kyoshi Island!

Katara’s panicked voice jolted Sokka back to reality, and _oh slush_ , reality was _painful_. He’d really hit his head hard on that wall. Man, he was having the worst day since… well, since he got drenched in magic water and his sister managed to bring the Avatar back from frozen-land.

But what Katara said next made Sokka realize that maybe he wasn’t having the worst day out of everyone on the barge.

“My mother’s necklace! It’s gone!”

…

Katara felt numb as she saw the old lady hug Haru. When his father joined them, she had to turn away.

When she had told Haru about her mother, he had been so sympathetic. He’d really cared about how she was feeling. But he hadn’t said _anything_ when she’d realized her mom’s necklace was gone.

She stayed quiet all through Sokka’s retelling of the story – she didn’t even care enough to correct him when he made out like he’d fought more Fire Nation soldiers than he’d actually fought. That necklace was all she’d had left of her Mom, and now she’d lost it. Even if it hadn’t been enough, it had still been _something_.

And now it was gone.

“Katara?”

She raised her head to see Haru’s father Tyro looking at her. “Hmm?”

“Are you alright?” Tyro asked gently.

She realized everyone was looking at her. “I’m okay,” she tried to reassure them. “I think I’m just tired.”

“You’ve had a hard time of it, dear,” Haru’s mother consoled her. “How about some tea? Your friend Lee brought some along earlier before he had to set off.”

Katara could hear the words, but she couldn’t quite understand them. “Lee?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “Boy’s a little short, perhaps, but rather respectful. Even when I told him he could call me Xiá, he still only called me ‘Ma’am’.”

“Zu – uh, Lee isn’t short,” Aang sounded confused. “He’s actually pretty tall.”

“Not _that_ tall,” Sokka interjected.

Xiá chuckled as she bustled around the small kitchen, setting a cup down in front of Katara and patting her hand. “Well, Lee’s a fine young man – handsome, too, even with that scar of his –”

“ _Mom_ ,” Haru groaned. “You’re making it _weird_ –”

“Some welcome home,” Tyro agreed, moving to stand by his wife. “Coming back after so long away to hear my wife talking about a handsome, younger man –”

“Oh, _spirits_ ,” Haru muttered, putting his head in his hands. “This is awful, shut up –”

“Where’s this Lee chap, then?” Tyro continued, giving Haru a pat on the shoulder. “Is he a friend of yours, Avatar Aang?”

“Yeah!” Aang nodded. “He couldn’t come with us to help, because he, uh,” Aang looked at Katara, then at Sokka. “He wanted to stay here and make tea for Xiá.”

“Didn’t need him along anyway!” Sokka stated proudly. “Just like the last time we broke someone out – Katara did it all on her own, just like with Aang! And we didn’t even see any weird spirit action this time, either.”

Tyro rubbed his beard thoughtfully. “Well, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I heard from Gāng that the Blue Spirit showed up on the rig.”

“Really?” Haru asked. “That’s _crazy!_ ”

“The Blue what-now?” Aang asked, just as Sokka groaned and said something about crazy sisters who kept summoning spirits.

“Hey!” She said, stung by being thought of as crazy.

“Hot water’s ready, Katara,” Xiá said, touching her hand gently. “How does chamomile sound?”

Katara suddenly found herself blinking back tears. She’d told Zuko’s Uncle Iroh that her Gran-Gran’s favorite tea was jasmine, and that she preferred ginger. But she hadn’t been able to tell him that one of her memories with her mother was of drinking ginger tea.

“Do you have any ginger?” She asked quietly. Her neck felt very bare, all of a sudden.

Xiá must have seen the brightness in her eyes, because she gave her a slow, gentle hug. Katara took a shaky breath, but Xiá didn’t smell anything like the ice and cold.

“Lee brought some ginger with him,” Xiá said as she withdrew. “I’ll just get that sorted for you, dear.”

“Thank you,” Katara whispered.

The boys’ conversation had come to an awkward pause as she had been talking with Xiá. She remembered Gran-Gran complaining about how it seemed like a typical thing for men to not deal very well with women who seemed upset. Eventually, Sokka cleared his throat a few times and put his hand behind his head. Katara was pretty sure he was only doing that as an excuse to flex his bicep.

 _Boys_.

“So this Blue Spirit,” Sokka was saying. “What’s _that_ all about?”

“Nobody really knows,” Haru admitted. “They wear a mask, so nobody knows anything about them. But they’ve been showing up across the Earth Kingdom for the past couple of years, causing trouble for the Fire Nation, dealing with their soldiers, messing up their supply lines.”

“Gāng said that the Blue Spirit managed to get him a whole collection of documents from the warden’s office,” Tyro explained. “All the records of prisoners – without them, the Fire Nation can’t prove we were on the rig, and they can’t arrest us again. We burned them,” he added, looking pretty satisfied with that. “Thought it was pretty ironic.”

“So that’s who must have knocked out those guards in the corridor!” Aang said excitedly. “It was the Blue Spirit! Oh, that makes way more sense than what I’d been thinking.” He sighed happily.

“Me too,” Sokka agreed. “Like, I hadn’t even _thrown_ a boomerang down that hallway, you know?”

“That would still make more sense than mine,” Aang giggled. “I thought it was Momo!”

“Your… lemur?” Tyro asked, like he wasn’t quite sure what he was hearing.

“Well, he could have been an earthbender,” Aang shrugged. “So I’m starting to think anything’s possible for Momo.”

“Here’s your ginger, Katara,” Xiá said kindly. “There’s some more in the pot, if you’d like it.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, drawing the cup up to her mouth to take a sip. But the scent, the taste, the warmth – it was all too much for her.

As she hurried out of the room, she heard Haru ask “What’s with her?” in a confused voice.

He didn’t _understand_ , she thought desperately to herself. He’d taken her on a walk and he’d listened to her and he’d been nice and he’d looked really handsome in the sunset last night but he hadn’t said _anything_ when she’d realized her mom’s necklace was gone –

Katara made for the front door, hoping that she could sit out on the porch by herself for a moment – but when she opened the door, she came face-to-face with Zuko, who looked just as surprised to see her.

“Um,” he said, in his _stupid_ Fire Nation voice. “Hi?”

Katara gritted her teeth. She would _not_ let him see her cry. “Where have you been?”

As stupid as he was, Zuko at least seemed to pick up on the fact that something was wrong. “I was, um, in the village? I was getting some tea, it’s – I thought Xiá would like it.”

“Well, we’ve got tea.”

Zuko’s golden eyes flicked to her cup. “Is that ginger?”

She didn’t _mean_ for the liquid in her cup to freeze, but she heard the _crack_ and felt the sudden chill, and she knew what must have happened.

And Katara was so _tired_ right now – she’d broken out of a prison, and she’d lost her mother’s necklace, and the Fire Nation had taken her mother away from her, and Mom had _saved_ her because she was a waterbender, but she couldn’t _bend_ , but Zuko was a firebender and he could just _bend_ , and it wasn’t _fair_ , it wasn’t **_fair_** –

“Just go _away_ ,” she choked out, closing her eyes and dropping down to sit on the porch steps, hiding her face and the tears that served as evidence. “Just go _away_ , Zuko!”

He stood there for a moment before she felt a gentle pressure tugging at the tight grip she had on her cup. She fought to hold onto it tighter, but she was so _tired_ , and it was _cold_.

When Zuko set the cup down next to her a few moments later, she could feel the warmth of the hot tea. He still wasn’t saying anything, and when she lifted her head, he had already gone.

When she closed her eyes, the tea tasted just like her Mom used to make it.


	10. Chapter 10

Zuko hadn’t seen Aang, Sokka or Katara when he had been sneaking round on the prison rig; he’d been a little preoccupied with having to break into the warden’s office and find the prison records – names, alleged crimes, dates of admission, the whole works – and sneak out again, and that had been tricky enough _before_ he’d run into a half-dozen soldiers on his way out.

They’d looked just as surprised to see him, though, and that split-second advantage where he had reacted first was just about enough to get him out of there safely with only a few bruises. He’d dropped the records off with the first guy in prison uniform he could see before making another escape, hauling himself onto the escape barge through an open porthole.

He’d snuck around below deck for a bit, eventually striking gold when he found what appeared to be the crew quarters. He found plenty of loose copper change, a fair bit of silver, and even a few gold coins scattered about in various drawers, so he’d been in a pretty good mood by the time they reached the shore. He’d also remembered to buy Xiá some tea on his way back to the house.

Katara had seemed pretty unhappy to see him when he showed up, but he’d seen Appa fly by on his way back from the store in the village and there had been a lot of happy and relieved faces in the market, so things couldn’t have gone _too_ badly, right?

But even as he tried to reassure himself that Katara was only mad about seeing him because she didn’t like him – which was kind of a new low for trying to cheer himself up, when he thought about it – Zuko still breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Aang and Sokka in the kitchen.

“Hi, Zuk –” Aang began, before Sokka clamped his hand over his mouth. “ _Mmph!_ ”

“Hey, Lee,” Sokka said, as if Aang wasn’t struggling to remove his hand from his mouth. “How’s it going, buddy? My buddy _Lee?_ ”

Zuko winced at the look in Sokka’s eyes. It was very much a _Explain yourself, now_ look. He’d had one of those looks from Uncle the first time he had climbed back onto the _Wani_ in a blue theatre mask, only to find Uncle waiting for him in his room.

Uncle had _not_ been impressed.

Beihe was only a small mining village, and it was occupied and heavily taxed by the Fire Nation. Part of the terms of Zuko’s banishment was that he couldn’t enter any overseas Fire Nation territories, but he and Uncle were usually careful.

“It’s going okay,” he said carefully, before turning back to Mrs. Xiá. “I, um – went down to the village, Ma’am. I don’t know if you like matcha, but I hope you do – I mean, my Uncle doesn’t like matcha too much, but that’s just him…”

He trailed off as he saw a man who must have been Haru’s father. He was, uh… imposing. Uncle had always said the people of the Earth Kingdom were diverse and strong; this guy definitely counted as _strong_ , at least.

Zuko decided to give a quick bow, just in case. “Sir.”

“You must be Lee,” the old man said. “I’m Tyro. I see you’ve met and charmed my wife.”

Zuko blinked hard at that. “Uh…”

He was saved from having to think of a response by Sokka’s loud snort. “Tyro, man, if you think our buddy _Lee_ is the kind of guy to sweep a girl off her feet, you don’t know him. It’s like you don’t even know Lee! Man, you can’t call _Lee_ a charmer, you might as well not bother calling him _Lee_ , it’s so –”

“Thanks, Sokka,” Zuko interrupted, giving him the _Shut up!_ glare he had always given Uncle whenever he got _too_ invested in a rambling story that never went anywhere. Surprisingly, it actually worked on Sokka. “It’s a _nickname_. I think they get the point.”

“Short,” Haru muttered to his dad, who nodded in response. Whatever that meant.

“Uh,” Zuko turned back to Sokka. “Katara’s outside. I don’t know if you wanted to go check on her.”

Sokka looked a bit nervous at that, which didn’t really make sense to Zuko. _He_ was the one she didn’t like – why was Sokka worried about going and talking to her?

“Boys,” Xiá tutted, shaking her head. “I’ll go and sit with her. You can all keep being great lumps in here.”

“Again, the warm welcome home,” Tyro mumbled, shaking his head.

“I’ll give you a proper welcome home tonight,” Xiá promised, and _oh, for all the bright lights of Agni_ , Zuko **_never_** wanted to hear _anything_ like that ever again!

Haru let out a whimper, and even Sokka looked thoroughly grossed out. Aang just looked confused, and Zuko was momentarily envious of the twelve-year-old, who was apparently innocent enough not to be freaked out by that sort of thing.

“So how’d it go?” He asked Sokka, trying to act natural and distract himself from the way Tyro was looking dreamily after his wife.

“Good!” Sokka nodded vigorously. “Katara gave a cool speech about hope, Aang did his airbending stuff, Haru did his earthbending stuff – couldn’t have gone better!”

“And apparently the Blue Spirit showed up!” Aang jumped in. “Did you know about them, Zu – Lee?” He hastily corrected himself.

“Sure,” Zuko nodded, trying to act cool. “They keep setting back the Fire Nation’s war effort, right?”

 _The Blue Spirit_ fought against the Fire Nation. Not _Zuko_. He was loyal to the Nation. Always.

“Right,” Tyro nodded. “We heard a lot about them on the barge – a lot of the guards seemed eager to have them sent in our direction, but I doubt they’d end up here. I’m glad they’re still fighting; when we couldn’t fight back, it gave us comfort to know that _someone_ could.”

“Well, we can fight back now,” Sokka declared brashly. “Now that Aang’s here, we can take the fight to the Fire Lord! That’s why we’re going to the North Pole, and that’s how we’re rolling, Water Tribe style.”

He ended his little speech by slinging an arm around Aang’s shoulders and pulling him close, throwing his hand up in a contorted gesture. Zuko wasn’t sure if it was an ancient symbol of the Southern Water Tribe, or whether Sokka had just accidentally dislocated his fingers somehow.

“If you’re heading north, you’ll need to be careful,” Haru advised, stroking his chin. “We’ve heard rumors of bounty hunters and mercenaries in the northern Earth Kingdom.”

“Haru’s right,” Tyro agreed. “Did you have a route in mind?”

“Uh…” Sokka and Aang exchanged a look.

“Senlin, Gaipan, Makapu,” Zuko responded flatly.

“Gaipan might be tricky,” Tyro stroked his beard, much like Haru had stroked his chin a few moments ago. “It’s been occupied for a few years now. The Fire Nation’s left Senlin well enough alone.”

“Then that’s our next move,” Aang declared, shooting Zuko a quick look. “When are we leaving?”

“As soon as possible,” Sokka said. “We’ll head off before the warden and the Fire Nation come looking for us. I’ll get Appa going to Senlin this afternoon.”

Zuko nodded. “Sounds good.”

Sokka held up a finger. “Sleep first, though.” He yawned, and Zuko got a nice view of the back of his throat. “Always sleep first…”

He trailed off, and Tyro had to catch him before he slumped over.

…

Aang thought this might have been his busiest day in a long time. He hadn’t actually gotten much sleep last night, because he and Sokka had been sneaking round the prison rig and figuring out how to get the coal up onto the deck, and then they’d actually had the prison break. Now it was mid-afternoon, and even after a quick nap, he was still feeling pretty tired.

“Sleep on Appa,” Zuko advised him. “I’ll steer.”

“I think Sokka wanted to steer,” Aang vaguely remembered him saying something like that.

“Sokka’s still asleep,” Zuko nodded in the direction of the other boy’s bedroll. “I think he’ll want to keep napping.”

“Oh.” Aang had thought that they had wanted to set off as soon as possible, but apparently they were okay to let Sokka keep napping for a bit longer. “Okay.”

Zuko looked between Aang and Sokka again, and gave Aang a smile. It actually looked more like a _smirk_ , and Aang thought it looked kind of mischievous. “You want to piss him off?”

Aang checked around for Katara, but she wasn’t there. “Can we do that?”

“You know you want to. It’ll be fun.”

Aang cocked his head and looked at Zuko in a new light. “I thought you didn’t care about _fun_.”

“Not really,” Zuko acknowledged. “But if it’ll piss Sokka off…”

Aang giggled as he shared a conspiratorial glance with Zuko, and bent a little air current Sokka’s way. Then, he sent it down the front of Sokka’s sleeping bag.

“ _Augh!_ ” Sokka yelled as he jerked awake. “La’s _balls_ , that’s _icy!_ ”

Aang couldn’t help but wrap his arms around his stomach as he laughed. Oh, _man_ , that had been funny! The way Sokka’s voice had gone all squeaky – it reminded him of how Kuzon had sounded when Bumi had launched him into the air, and he’d landed on a rock in a really uncomfortable way. Aang couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed this hard.

“What the _slush,_ Aang?” Sokka demanded, falling out of his sleeping bag and curling up on the ground. “You’ve just _frozen_ my parts!”

“Time to move, Sokka,” Zuko advised him without any sympathy. “You said we’re moving on to Senlin this afternoon.”

“My _parts,_ ” Sokka whined.

Zuko rolled his eyes and crouched down. “You want me to warm them up?”

Sokka paused in his complaining and cracked an eye open. “Uh. You mean, like –”

“No!” Zuko reared back and pulled a face. “No, Sokka, what – why’d you think that?”

“Well, what was I supposed to think when you say something like that?”

“I was gonna stick a flame down there, you idiot! Not –” Zuko groaned. “Just get up and get ready to go!”

Aang watched him storm out of the barn in high dudgeon before turning back to Sokka. “What’s Senlin like?”

“I don’t know, Aang,” Sokka grumbled, pulling his hair back into his little Southern Water Tribe hairstyle. He called it a ‘warrior’s wolf tail’, but Aang just thought it was a bit of a small ponytail. “I’ve never been before, remember?”

“But you know where it is, right?”

Sokka scowled. “I’ll find out from Tyro.”

“That’s okay,” Aang hastened to reassure him as he stomped around gathering up his stuff. “I think Zuko knows, so you can ask him. Or I can go and ask him now, if you want?”

“It’s fine, Aang,” Sokka told him. He sounded a bit annoyed, and Aang wondered if Momo had been poking around in his stuff again. “I’ll figure out where Senlin is, and then we can just get moving, alright?”

As Sokka headed out of the barn, Momo landed on Aang’s shoulder and chittered a question. Aang shook his head. “No, I don’t know what’s going on with him either, Momo.”

Momo tilted his head, flapped his ear back and forth a few times, and made another chirrup.

“No, I’m pretty sure Appa wasn’t poking around in his stuff,” Aang replied, beginning to make his own way towards the barn door. “Isn’t that usually what you’re doing?”

Momo let him know in no uncertain terms that he was deeply offended that Aang would say such a thing about him. “Okay, okay – I just thought I’d check, you know?”

When he reached Haru’s house, Sokka and Zuko were already packing up the bags. Well, Sokka was heaving bags up to Zuko so he could put them on Appa’s back.

“Do you want some help with that, Sokka?” Aang asked. “I can airbend them up if you want?”

“No,” Sokka replied, wiping his brow and panting. “No, buddy, I’m good. I’ve got this!” He flexed his bicep and grinned weakly. “Doing great!”

Well, there were only, like, two or three more bags to go, so Aang figured Sokka could handle it. He wandered on to where Katara was standing with Haru.

“Ready to go?” He asked Katara excitedly. He’d thought it might have been cool to explore the mine outside the village, but Tyro had said it had been closed down whilst they worked to restore what had been damaged in the cave-in. So whilst Haru and Xiá and Tyro seemed really nice, he wanted to see what this Senlin place was like.

“Almost,” Katara said. She looked a little sad. To be fair, Aang thought Haru and his family were really nice, too. “Haru and I were just talking, Aang. Can you go check if Sokka needs any help with the bags?”

Aang shook his head. “I already asked him – he said he didn’t need my help.”

“It’s fine, Katara,” Haru said. He gave Katara a quick hug, and then put his hand out for Aang to shake. He gave Aang a big smile, and clapped him on his shoulder. “Thanks so much for everything, guys. You helped me get my father back, and that’s – I thought I’d never see him again, so… thank you.”

“Aw,” Aang blushed. “That’s okay. It’s kind of what I’m supposed to do, right, Katara?”

“Yeah,” Katara nodded. “Sure. I’m happy you’ve got your dad back, Haru.”

Haru put his hand on the back of his neck. “And I, uh, hope you find your mom’s necklace again, Katara.”

Katara looked down at the ground. “Me too. Thanks, Haru.”

Haru gave her another hug, and then Aang moved to give Haru a hug. The older boy was a bit taller than Aang, but he let Aang give him a squeeze round the middle and Aang let him pat him on the head. They walked back to stand by Appa.

“You’d probably better get up there before Sokka and Lee decide to take off without you,” Haru said.

Aang laughed as he spun himself up into Appa’s saddle in a twist of airbending. “They can try. Appa wouldn’t ditch me!”

“Sadly,” Sokka agreed. “I’ve already tried twice.”

“Good luck on your trip, Avatar Aang,” Tyro wished them well. “And thank you again, Katara, for everything.”

Katara looked a bit distracted as she settled into Appa’s saddle. “It’s okay, Tyro. I’m just happy to see your family back together again.”

Sokka turned around to raise his eyebrows at his three passengers and Momo. “Everyone ready?”

“Sure!” Aang beamed. “Care to do the honors, Sokka?”

“Alright,” Sokka turned back to face forward. “Appa, yip yip!”

 _Next stop, Senlin_ , Aang thought happily, before settling back down for a nap. Another sleep sounded great after the action-packed day he’d had.

…

Katara sat with her arms folded on the side of Appa’s saddle, watching the world go by beneath her.

Even now, more than a month after leaving the South Pole, she still couldn’t get used to how _colorful_ everything was in the Earth Kingdom. The green grass, the golden fields, the blue of the rivers and streams. Back home, everything had been white and gray and silver.

And there had also been black soot, once, but she pushed that thought away. She reached up to remind herself –

Her fingers brushed against her bare neck, and she remembered that she’d lost her mother’s necklace on the prison rig.

“Katara?”

Zuko was looking at her. His golden eyes were soft, and she _hated_ that. He hadn’t been there on the rig! He hadn’t helped, and she had lost her mother’s necklace – why was he _looking_ at her like that?

“Are you okay?” He asked quietly.

She turned her face away. “I’m _fine_.”

She could hear him shifting behind her, and imagined him glancing nervously up at Sokka. Whereas he might have been worrying about a boomerang hitting him in the head, she was sort of _hoping_ for it right now.

“Do you, um – want to talk about it?”

 _Not with you_ , she wanted to say. He had heated up her ginger tea, but that didn’t mean she wanted to talk to Zuko about her mother. She wanted to talk to Gran-Gran, she wanted her Dad to tell her things would be okay, she wanted _Mom_ , with her warm, tight hugs that smelt like the cold whenever Katara had pressed her nose into the parka fur.

Zuko must have taken her silence as an invitation for him to keep talking, which was decidedly _not_ what it was. “Or, uh, I could talk, if you want. We can talk about whatever. Have you ever seen a turtleduck? They’re, um, kind of cute. They actually do this thing where –”

“I’m fine, Zuko,” she cut him off before he could keep talking. Anything to make him _shut up_.

“I just miss _home_ ,” she whispered, turning to lean against the side of Appa’s saddle and wrapping her arms around her torso.

Zuko’s hair was whipping around his face as Appa flew onwards. Strands blew across his forehead, fell into his scarred eye, curled across his cheek, but his gaze remained fixed on Katara. She averted her eyes to leave his amber stare behind.

“What’s it like at the South Pole?” She heard him ask quietly.

Homesickness turned her heart to face the south.

“It’s beautiful,” she heard herself reply distantly. “It’s cold, and the winters are long. When the nights draw in, we’d always come together to tell stories round the fire. We’d eat roasted fish, and Sokka would always steal my seal jerky.”

She thought she heard Zuko laugh, but she wasn’t sure. She was watching the Earth Kingdom go by beneath her, but she wasn’t seeing fields of green and gold. It was the ice fields, the icebergs floating by, and the still, silent glass of the ocean.

“The old women were teaching me how to sew, and the kids always wanted me to play with them,” she kept going, remembering laughter and teasing. “Sometimes they’d end up playing rough, and I’d have to use what I’d learned to mend the rips and tears. They always said thank you and promised not to do it again – and then they’d be back in a few days later with holes in pretty much the exact same places.”

She smiled at the memory. “I didn’t play any of those games, but when I was little, my Dad would take me out and we’d go on walks in the snow. I could just about get a snowbank to hit him in the head if I concentrated hard enough. He’d always act mad and grumble about it, but then he’d pick me up and swing me around, and he’d stand out there for _hours_ as I tried to catch him with my waterbending.”

Zuko didn’t say anything, but he’d moved a little closer so he could hear her better. His ochre eyes were still watching her, and his mouth had softened. It wasn’t a smile, but it was less of a frown than normal.

“I didn’t get many chances to bend,” she said quietly. “I’d sometimes be able to stir the soup, but it’s hard when I don’t know _how_ I’m supposed to bend. And there’s not much time to practice, with everything that needs doing. There’s cooking, and cleaning, and laundry, and about a hundred other things that either you need to do, or someone else needs doing but can’t do themselves. It’s not like I don’t mind doing it for them,” she added hastily, to make sure he got that part. “But it’s just – there’s a lot to do, and it takes up a lot of time.”

She wasn’t sure why she sounded so defensive, but she wanted him to know that she wasn’t a _bad_ bender. She wouldn’t be a bad bender, if she could just _practice_. When she got to the North Pole, when she found a master, she swore to Tui and La that she wouldn’t _stop_ practicing.

“What’s your favorite food?” Zuko asked.

“Stewed sea prunes.” She didn’t even have to think twice about it. “I could eat them all day – actually, I think Sokka did, once.”

Zuko gave her a tentative smile. “Sounds like Sokka.”

“Gran-Gran got kind of mad at him. He was lying around complaining about how his stomach hurt, and she told him he’d be complaining about how his head hurt if he didn’t get up and help out.”

Zuko ducked his head but she thought his smile had gotten a bit wider. “We can, uh – I miss home, too. And sometimes eating my favorite food helps.”

Katara stiffened. “I don’t want to eat your _Fire Nation_ food –”

“No!” Zuko gave her a worried look before cringing. They both turned to check whether he’d woken Aang up. To Katara’s relief, the boy just mumbled something about lemurs who could fight like samurai, and turned over onto his side.

“No, that’s – that not what I meant,” Zuko fumbled. “I just mean – when I miss home, eating food from home can make me feel better. And I was wondering if stewed sea prunes would help with that. For you.”

“We don’t have any stewed sea prunes,” Katara responded. She huffed and turned back to looking out on the Earth Kingdom. “I don’t have sea prunes. And I don’t have anyone to teach me bending, either. And I don’t –”

 _I don’t have Mom’s necklace_.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she managed, turning away from Zuko. “I just want to be left alone.”

He didn’t _understand_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote about Zuko's first outing as the Blue Spirit in [Chapter One](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29029698/chapters/71251329) of my prequel fic, 'The Blue Spirit: Year One'.


	11. Chapter 11

Aang woke up somewhere over the Earth Kingdom feeling a whole heap better than when he’d fallen asleep. He couldn’t see the sea, so he figured that Sokka had taken them inland. Senlin Village must have been somewhere in the forest.

As he looked around the saddle, Zuko gave him a small nod. Katara was curled up in a ball with a blanket draped over her, and Sokka was still up front steering.

“Is Katara asleep?” Aang whispered. He’d asked her whether Sokka was sleeping one time on their way to Omashu, but he’d accidentally said it a bit loudly and woken Sokka up. He hadn’t been very happy about it.

Zuko nodded again. “For about half an hour, now.”

“Oh, cool. How long was I asleep for?”

Zuko thought about it for a moment. “Two and a half hours?”

Aang thought that was a pretty good nap. “Have you slept yet?”

“I’m not tired.”

“Has Sokka?”

Zuko gave him a look. Aang still didn’t know Zuko very well, but he knew a look of fond exasperation when he saw one. Monk Gyatso had worn it all the time, and even Monk Pasang had told Aang a few times that whilst he was very fond of him, and his air scooter _was_ an impressive sign of his airbending mastery, he still shouldn’t be using it whilst they were repainting the common spaces in the Southern Air Temple. He’d looked _very_ exasperated with blue paint dripping down the ends of his moustache.

“I liked it better when you were asleep,” Zuko told him. “It was quieter.”

“Oh, sure,” Aang nodded seriously. “I bet you just spent two and a half hours meditating, Hotman.”

Zuko rolled his eyes – well, he rolled his right eye, because his left one didn’t really roll. It didn’t do much, with the scar and all. Aang wondered if he could see out of it.

But Sokka had told him that maybe Zuko wouldn’t want to talk about it, so Aang got up and stretched dramatically. “Well, I’ll leave you to your meditation, Hotman. Have fun hating fun!”

“Oh, shut up,” Zuko muttered, giving him a look that was slightly less fond. “Go piss Sokka off.”

Aang sniggered to himself as he left Zuko alone to his grumpiness, and slid onto Appa to sit next to Sokka. “Hey, Sokka.”

Sokka turned to him and blinked slowly. “Hey, Aang. How’s it going?”

“Going good!” He nodded happily. “I just had a great nap, and that always helps.”

“Napping’s always good,” Sokka agreed, before letting out a yawn of his own. “Imagine napping with food… that’s the good stuff…”

“Do you want to go for a nap, Sokka?” Aang looked closely at his friend. He had a few dark circles under his eyes, which made Aang wonder whether Sokka was getting enough sleep.

“Me?” Sokka shook his head. “I’m good, buddy. Gotta stay awake and steer Appa, you know? Gotta lead, like –” he was cut off by another yawn. “Like my Dad.”

“Oh,” Aang nodded. “That makes sense, I guess.”

Aang had been raised by the monks, and he’d never known his parents, but Monk Gyatso had always said that the other nations cared a lot about family. That’s why Sokka and Katara had been so focused on how Zuko was from the Fire Nation, because that was his family.

“Sokka?” Aang asked. “Does your Dad hate the Fire Nation?”

Sokka seemed to think about it for a moment. “I don’t know. Dad always said that if you hate something, you’re letting it have control over you, and there’s no way Dad would ever let the Fire Nation control the Water Tribe. But I don’t get how you _can’t_ hate the Fire Nation, you know?”

Aang nervously checked over his shoulder to make sure Zuko wasn’t listening in. “Do you mean, like… _everyone_ in the Fire Nation?”

Sokka sighed. “I don’t know, Aang. Honestly, it’s not something I really think about much. We need to beat the Fire Nation and end the war. That’s kind of it, you know?”

He gave another big yawn. “Besides, I’m really tired, okay? I don’t do much deep thinking when I’m tired.”

Aang remembered how Suki had teased Sokka on Kyoshi Island. She had said something about how deep the water was in the bay, and he had replied that it was almost as deep as his deep thoughts.

Suki had rolled her eyes and flipped Sokka onto his back in the sand, and Katara had almost fallen over backwards into the surf with how hard she had been laughing.

Aang smiled at the memory. “Or ever, right?”

“Hey,” Sokka pointed a warning finger at Aang. “Keep talking, and I’ll turn this bison around.”

Appa let out a grunt, and Aang grinned back at Sokka. He allowed himself to feel a bit smug about that.

“I think Appa likes me better,” he said.

“Probably,” Sokka conceded grudgingly. “But that’s _only_ because you just let him fly wherever. It’s not my fault we’ve got a destination in mind.”

“I thought you wanted to go to Senlin?” Aang asked.

Sokka scowled. “ _Zuko_ wanted to go to Senlin, remember? I didn’t even know this place _existed_ until he told Tyro we were heading there.”

“Me neither,” Aang agreed. “Did Tyro end up giving you directions, then?”

Sokka nodded. “Yeah, he pointed me in this direction and said we should get there by tomorrow night.”

Aang looked down at Appa and patted his head. “Don’t worry, boy – we can take a break before then.”

“Are you sure?” Sokka turned to raise an eyebrow at Aang. “We want to keep moving, right?”

Aang pointed out that Appa was a ten-ton bison, and it took a lot of energy for him to fly. If they wanted to reach Senlin Village without Appa falling asleep mid-flight, they should probably take a break.

“I’m sure even your Dad took breaks,” he added, feeling like that would be a good way to help Sokka see his way of thinking.

Sure enough, Sokka nodded slowly. “Well, if we’re taking breaks, I might go for that nap after all…” He yawned again, and Aang got a really gross look inside his mouth. “You good to keep going?”

If Sokka fell asleep outside Appa’s saddle, he might actually fall off Appa. And that would be bad. Suki would probably flip Aang a whole _bunch_ of times if she found out he’d accidentally let Sokka fall off Appa.

“Straight on in this direction,” Aang agreed. “I’ll find us a place to camp for tonight, okay?”

“Sounds great, Aang,” Sokka mumbled, as he turned around to hoist himself back into Appa’s saddle. “Sounds nice. Real nice. Nice ice. South Pole ice…”

It didn’t take long before the sound of loud snoring came drifting up to Aang.

Appa grunted and flicked his left ear, and Aang giggled. “Yeah, he’s pretty loud, isn’t he?”

…

It took Zuko less than ten minutes to grow tired of Sokka’s snoring.

He’d had to suck it up during the tent the first night, and living with Uncle Iroh had helped him become a little more patient with snorers, but even Uncle might have struggled not to give into the temptation to jam his foot in between Sokka’s ribs and wake him up.

He supposed that Katara was used to it, having lived with Sokka for fourteen years, but he was _not_. With a disgruntled huff, he moved to go and sit with Aang.

The monk looked altogether too happy for Zuko’s mood. “Oh, hey, Zuko. Come to sit up front with me?”

“Sorry, Aang,” he said, eager not to get the kid’s hopes up. “I’m just escaping Sokka.”

“That’s cool. Have you ever been to Senlin before?”

“No,” Zuko responded, settling back into Appa’s fur. “Uncle has, though.”

He carefully omitted the details of how Uncle had ended up in Senlin. Even if the Fire Nation had decided that Senlin wasn’t important enough to use as a strategic location, they had still fought a few campaigns in the central Earth Kingdom.

“Your Uncle must have visited _everywhere_ ,” Aang said in an impressed voice. “Is there anywhere he _hasn’t_ been?”

Zuko tried to think about it. “The North Pole? I’m not sure.”

“What about the South Pole?”

Zuko shifted a little uncomfortably. “I think we came pretty close to the South Pole a few years ago.”

Back when Zuko was thirteen, he’d visited the Southern Air Temple and been disappointed not to find the Avatar. He’d been about ready to sail on further south to see if anyone from the Water Tribes knew anything, but Uncle, in one of his rare displays of firm decisiveness, had put his foot down and told him in no uncertain terms that he would not be going to the frozen southernmost point of the world without any jasmine tea.

Ensign Takahashi had piped up and said that with all due respect, Prince Zuko, Sir, there was no way she was going to be freezing her balls off at the South Pole without first stocking up on fireflakes. A thirteen-year-old Zuko had been too embarrassed to point out that Ensign Takahashi didn’t _have_ … never mind.

But, in any case, they hadn’t sailed any further south.

“Well, I’ve been to the South Pole,” Aang said. “So I guess that’s one place I’ve been that your uncle hasn’t.”

“Good job, Aang,” Zuko replied dryly.

“And when I figure out how to get to the Spirit World, that’ll be another place your Uncle’s never been,” Aang continued, nodding to himself with a satisfied air.

“Oh, Uncle’s been to the Spirit World,” Zuko replied casually. He felt it was only a _little_ amusing to see Aang suck in a surprised breath and start coughing.

“What?” He turned to Zuko in surprise. “When did he do that? _How_ did he do that?”

“I think it was – five years ago?” Zuko tried to remember. Lu Ten had died five years ago, so it must have been after that… Uncle had only returned to the Fire Nation six months after the end of the siege, but he’d been gone for another year after that. “Maybe four.”

“Oh, _man_ ,” Aang complained, turning to face forward and crossing his arms. “How come your Uncle’s already done all the cool stuff?”

Zuko wasn’t quite sure that Uncle had made his trip to the Spirit World because he had thought it would be a cool thing to do. From the way Uncle had told him the story when he was twelve, he had only done it because he had wanted to see Lu Ten again.

The thought of seeing his mother again had made Zuko ask whether Uncle had seen his son, but Uncle had looked at him sadly.

“Our fire can be beautiful, Nephew,” he had told him. “But one cannot coax flames from ash, nor catch the smoke on the breeze.”

Zuko hadn’t quite understood what Uncle was saying, but he’d understood that maybe Uncle didn’t give him a straight answer because he didn’t want to talk about it, and so he’d let Uncle drink his tea in peace.

“Uncle’s an old man,” he said to Aang. “He’s probably just had a lot of time to do a lot of things.”

“Well, I’m a hundred and twelve,” Aang mumbled morosely. “And I’ve never been to the Spirit World.”

“You haven’t been training as the Avatar for very long, though,” Zuko tried to cheer him up. “You’ll probably get to go there soon enough.”

“Probably,” Aang conceded, though he didn’t sound too optimistic. “Or I’ll get frozen in an iceberg again, and miss out _again_.”

“You won’t,” Zuko nudged him. “That’s sort of what I’m here for, right? To stop you getting into trouble?”

Aang gave him a nudge back. “Didn’t we just break a ton of earthbenders out of prison?”

“That was Katara,” Zuko reminded him. “She’s the one getting into trouble.”

Aang chuckled. “Maybe your uncle should have told you to keep an eye on Katara.”

That meddlesome old man probably _would_ have, Zuko thought resignedly to himself. “Something tells me she can take care of herself.”

For all that Katara seemed to dislike him, Zuko had to admit he was impressed by her. She’d gotten herself arrested and helped inspire a prison escape, for Agni’s sake. He couldn’t imagine that there were many people out there who would have been willing to put themselves in that kind of danger for people.

She was the kind of person he wanted to impress, though he wasn’t quite sure how to _do_ that, exactly. He didn’t want to end up with another frying pan-shaped bruise on his face.

“She seemed sad earlier, though,” he said, turning to Aang. “She said she misses home.”

Aang looked behind them at the sleeping Water Tribe siblings. “It’s the first time she’s been away from home, right?” He turned back to Zuko. “Did you ever feel homesick?”

Zuko hadn’t _allowed_ himself to feel homesick, the first few months of his banishment. When Uncle had sat him down and told him what had happened, Zuko had barely waited to hear the words _capture the Avatar_ before he had stormed out of his cabin to the bridge to set a course for the Western Air Temple.

But on his fourteenth birthday, when Uncle had presented him with a new tsungi horn he had procured at a market, Zuko had broken down and wept, because he didn’t want to be sitting on the deck for music night, he didn’t want to be at sea, he didn’t want to be chasing a ghost, he didn’t want to be banished exiled shamed _dishonored_ , he didn’t want any of this, _he_ _just_ _wanted to go home_.

He swallowed hard. You couldn’t coax flames from ash.

“Sometimes,” he said. “Sometimes, I miss home.”

…

Sokka woke up to Katara gently shaking him awake.

“Aang’s saying Appa’s getting tired,” she explained. “So we’re stopping to camp for the night.”

Sokka poked his head up and blearily looked around. They were in the middle of a clearing in a forest, and he and Katara were the only ones on Appa.

“Where’s Aang?” He asked, smacking his lips. _Ew_ , that was some nasty fuzz-breath. “Is there any water?”

Katara handed him a waterskin, and he mumbled a _thanks_ before chugging half of it back. That should do the trick.

“Zuko sent Aang off to go and get firewood,” Katara said. “I’m not sure why _he_ can’t go and get the wood, considering he’d know what burns well, but…” she shrugged. “At least he’s not causing problems.”

A horrible thought struck Sokka. “What if he’s just sending Aang off into a trap?” He hissed.

Katara shook her head. “He told Aang he needed to be back in ten minutes,” she explained. “I don’t think he’d set a time limit if he _wanted_ Aang to get caught.”

Sokka allowed himself to feel a bit relieved at that, before turning back to the main problem. Whilst he’d been asleep, anything could have happened! Even if Zuko wasn’t a threat, there could have been any number of Fire Nation soldiers roaming this part of the world.

“We should set up camp for the night,” he decided, getting to his feet – but the sudden rush of blood sent him woozy, and he stumbled over Appa’s saddle.

Thankfully, Appa’s tail was there to break his fall, and although Appa let out an indignant grunt, he was kind enough to let Sokka lie there.

“Guh,” he groaned. Yep, his tailbone was going to be feeling _that_ in the morning.

Katara’s head appeared upside-down as she peered down at him. “Are we setting up camp?” She teased. “Or are you just going to be lying down on Appa for the night?”

“Laugh it up,” Sokka grumbled, getting to his feet and pushing his giggling sister away. “Never mind that I’m taking the fall off Appa so that _you_ don’t have to –”

“Yeah,” Katara drawled. “Thanks, Sokka. Until you fell off Appa, I was just going round thinking ‘Gee, would it be a good thing or a bad thing if I fell off Appa? Only one way to find out!’”

A little way over, Zuko was unpacking one of their bags and setting out a bunch of Katara’s cooking pots. Sokka would have set up the tents first, personally, but he supposed he could let it slip. The sooner all the cooking stuff was set up, the sooner Katara could start cooking, and the sooner he could eat!

“What are you doing?” Katara asked, putting her hands on her hips and staring at Zuko.

He paused just as he was pulling a small frying pan out of the bag. “Uh – getting ready for when Aang comes back?”

“No way,” Katara shook her head and held her hand out. She snapped her fingers for emphasis. “Give me that.”

Zuko looked extremely nervous as he handed the frying pan over to Katara. Sokka couldn’t really blame him – he still had a bit of a bruise on his jaw from that time they’d found out he was a firebender and she’d whacked him with the pan.

“I’m not letting you poison us all,” she said firmly.

Zuko bristled. “I’ve already told you, I’m not here to harm Aang –”

“Not that,” Katara snapped. “Last time I let a boy do the cooking, Aang burned _soup_.”

Sokka winced at the memory. That had been even more disappointing than the time Aang had burned his seal jerky for a fire.

“And Sokka?” Katara jerked a finger in his direction. “When he tried making dinner back home, he almost got us all smoked out of the igloo.”

Sokka held up his hands. “Whoa, leave me out of this! I was, like, _ten!_ ”

“This was literally two months ago,” Katara retorted, before turning back to Zuko. “I’m not letting you make a mess of dinner, too. You’d probably melt a hole straight through this pan!” She waved it about for emphasis.

Zuko was following the path of the frying pan with a tense expression. “Don’t tempt me.”

Katara scowled, and pointed it at him. “Just go help Sokka with – whatever it is Sokka needs help with.”

“Yes!” Sokka clapped his hands and jerked his thumb behind him. “Right, let’s leave Katara to it – she _clearly_ knows best.”

Zuko looked a bit put out, but the memory of the last time he got brained with a frying pan must have been weighing heavy on his mind, so he followed Sokka over to the bag with their tents.

“Help me get this tent over to that tree,” Sokka told him, pointing at a pretty big oak. If it started raining, that would make a _great_ shelter.

Zuko looked at it with a much less enthusiastic expression. “You sure?”

Sokka frowned. “What’s the problem?”

“The roots stick out,” Zuko pointed out. Slush, he was right – the tree’s roots were pretty thick. Sokka didn’t fancy trying to pitch a tent round those.

“You got a better idea?”

Zuko looked up at the sky, like he even knew what he was doing. Sokka remembered that Zuko had apparently spent a whole bunch of time travelling round with his Uncle, and scowled.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going to rain,” Zuko said eventually. “Why not just camp in the clearing?”

Sokka looked around, but he couldn’t find any reason _not_ to camp a little further away from the trees. If he’d spent ages tramping round the Earth Kingdom, he’d know the best places to pitch a tent too, he thought to himself as he got to work.

It wasn’t like Sokka was _following_ Zuko’s lead – he was still the leader, and Dad and Gran-Gran had _both_ entrusted him with responsibility. Dad had told him that it was his job to keep Katara safe, and Gran-Gran had told him to make sure they got to the North Pole safely. If he had to deal with a firebender, that was just part of the job.

Just because Zuko knew where to stick a tent so you didn’t end up sleeping with a tree root in your face, it didn’t mean he was the _leader_. Katara wasn’t putting up with any of his crap, and even if Aang was going out to get firewood, he would have done the same thing if Sokka had asked him.

He swung his mallet down at the tent peg, and bit back a yell as he accidentally whacked himself in the thumb.

“Tui’s _balls!_ ” He hissed, shaking his hand before cradling it close to his ribs.

“You okay there?” Zuko’s voice came from the other side of the tent.

“ _I’m fine!_ ”


	12. Chapter 12

As Katara woke up, she was already running through what she needed to do this morning before they set off again. First she’d need to sort out breakfast, and whilst the rice was cooking, she could fix that tear in the seam of her leggings, and maybe try and wash out the stain on the sleeve of Aang’s robe that she hadn’t been able to shake last night – as it turned out, coal was apparently _extremely_ hard to get rid of.

 _Ugh_. Mornings were the _worst_.

She tried to shield her eyes from the early morning light as she stumbled out of the tent. The sun was low on the horizon, and she took a moment to feel slightly irritated at how it was spoiling her mood.

Then she saw Zuko standing by her cooking pot, and she allowed herself to feel a little _more_ irritated at something _else_ that was spoiling her mood.

“What are you _doing?_ ” She hissed, dropping her leggings and sewing things before stalking over to him. “Seriously, I swear to La, if you’ve screwed up my stuff –”

Zuko put his hands up in the air and stepped away from the cooking pot. “I’m just making breakfast!”

“ _Spirits_ ,” she groaned. “I _told_ you, don’t try and cook if you can’t cook!”

“I _can_ cook,” Zuko said in an offended tone. “That’s what I was going to do last night, until you told me to go off with Sokka.”

Katara would believe that when she saw it. “ _You_ can cook?”

“Uncle said my _chahan_ was good!” Zuko said defensively. “Why’s that so hard to believe?”

Katara considered it. Back at the South Pole, cooking had always been women’s work. Whilst the men were charged with going out to hunt and gather food for the village, the women were in charge of the home. With Gran-Gran being so old, that had meant that Katara had been doing the cooking and the cleaning in their home; she’d sometimes done the cooking and cleaning for the other old women in the Tribe too, if their bones ached or their hands were too cold in the long winters.

Ever since Mom had died, Katara had been doing all the work around camp while Sokka had been off playing soldier. She’d wanted him to maybe help out more, but even Dad hadn’t done any of the cooking himself before he’d gone off to fight in the war, and Sokka wasn’t going to be doing anything he didn’t see Dad doing.

Gran-Gran had always told Sokka that if he wasn’t going to do any of the women’s work round the village, he was at least going to respect the work Katara did in keeping the village together, but he never really _did_. Or, at least, Katara didn’t really feel like he respected it. He definitely seemed more interested in the _men’s work_ , even if he hadn’t even gone _ice-dodging_ yet.

So with Sokka being _Sokka_ , and after Aang’s attempt at soup had ended… _disastrously_ – Katara had pretty much resigned herself to having to do all the cooking and the cleaning, because that was just how it worked for women when the men couldn’t be bothered to _learn_.

It was hard for her to believe that Zuko could cook because she hadn’t met a boy who could be _bothered_ to cook. But maybe things were different in the Fire Nation.

“When did you learn to cook?” She asked skeptically.

Zuko looked a bit relieved that she wasn’t looking for the nearest frying pan. “Uh – the last year? Uncle and I, we’ve been doing a lot of travelling, so we kind of had to learn.”

Katara poked at the boiling water with a ladle. At least he hadn’t managed to burn the rice. Small miracles were the best kind, because then you could grow them. “Are you any good?”

“Well, I’m not, like, amazing – but I can do some stuff. Uh, _chahan_ , some stews, some stuff with noodles and dumpling… Uncle always wanted me to try roast duck, but I can’t really do the sauce –”

“What’re you making here?” Katara asked, cutting him off. She asked him a simple question, and he gave her his life story.

“It’s just jook.” Zuko motioned to a chopping board he must have been using. “I was just going to chop up some fruit to go with it.”

Katara considered it. If Zuko was already doing breakfast, she had a bit of time to repair her leggings. But chopping fruit didn’t take long at all, and if Zuko could do the _sewing_ ¸ she could try and make a start on Aang’s robes, and then they might be finished by the time Aang and Sokka woke up!

It would be a bit embarrassing to hand over her clothes to Zuko, but it would probably be _more_ embarrassing for _him_ , she thought with satisfaction.

“Can you sew?” She asked.

“Um,” Zuko looked a bit embarrassed. “Not really. I mean, I can do, like, basic tears? But not much. Sorry.”

 _Typical_. She huffed, and let him know with a disappointed frown that he wasn’t doing much to endear himself to her. It seemed like some things were the same across all the nations.

“Just don’t burn the jook,” she muttered, before going back to gather up her things and sit down to keep an eye on him.

Being a boy, he was probably going to melt a hole straight through the bottom of the pot. Being from the Fire Nation, she wasn’t going to put it past him to do it on _purpose_.

Mending her clothes took a bit longer than Katara would have hoped; she was tired this early in the morning, and her sewing needles weren’t that great. She could have brought a better set, but the Tribe needed them more than she did. Most of the women found it more difficult to sew in their old age, and Katara wasn’t going to make it even harder for them. She could have brought her mother’s old set, but Katara had _never_ used her Mom’s sewing needles, and she hadn’t wanted to use them for the first time when she was away from home.

Now, though, she wished she had decided to bring them, if only so she could have had something of her mother’s with her.

“What were you even doing up?” She asked, trying to distract herself.

Zuko looked up from the mangoes he was cutting with intense concentration. “Hmm?”

“What were you doing up this early?” Katara motioned to the scene in front of her. “Did you get up just to make breakfast?”

“Um, no,” Zuko looked like he was going to rub the back of his neck, but then apparently remembered he had a big knife in his hand and lowered his hand again. “I’m a firebender, so I wake up at dawn. It’s a – it’s a firebender thing,” he mumbled.

Katara pulled a face. Of course it was a firebender thing.

…

When Aang had landed Appa in the middle of the forest last night, he had thought that this was a pretty good part of the world for forests. It had tons of trees, loads of grass, and Momo had been happy to find a few lychee nuts lying around. But now, standing in the middle of the burned-down forest, Aang realized that he had been mistaken.

This was awful! A massive part of the forest had been burnt down! Why would anyone want to do a thing like that? All the animals that must have been living here, Aang thought sadly to himself. He hoped none of them had suffered, and that they’d all gotten out okay.

Sokka seemed to agree, because he started ranting angrily about the Fire Nation. Zuko seemed to be a bit annoyed with that, but he didn’t say anything. Aang was a bit relieved; he didn’t think he could cope with his friends arguing without getting even more upset.

He knew it was his job as the Avatar to keep people from arguing, but it was also his job to protect nature, and he didn’t know how to do his job!

When he told Katara this, she reminded him that they were going to the North Pole for that reason – to find him a teacher. Katara was always focused on the North Pole! Just because she wanted to find a waterbending teacher. Well, Aang could probably find a hundred waterbenders at the North Pole who could teach him how to _waterbend_ , but how many of them would actually be able to teach him how to be the _Avatar?_

Apparently Avatar Roku would be able to teach him, but how was Aang supposed to listen to someone who’d died over a hundred years ago? Who’d died before he was even born?

He closed his eyes and sat back down on the ashy earth with a deep sigh. He was probably getting his robes dirty, but he didn’t care right now.

“Hey, Aang!” Katara sounded _way_ too happy right now. “You ready to be cheered up?”

“No,” Aang answered sadly. He was about to say that he just wanted to sit down and be left alone when something hit him in the head. _Ouch!_

“How is _that_ cheering me up?” He complained, looking around and seeing an acorn lying nearby.

“Cheered me up,” Sokka sniggered. Aang threw the acorn back at him and used what Zuko had been teaching him about fine motor control to give it an extra little boost. Sokka yelped as it hit him in the forehead. “Ow! – yeah, I probably deserved that.”

Zuko sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. Probably at how dumb Sokka was being, Aang thought.

Katara nudged him to get his attention again, and held out an acorn of her own. She didn’t throw it at Aang, which he appreciated.

“These acorns are everywhere, Aang,” she explained. “That means the forest will grow back! Every one of these will be a tall oak tree someday, and all the birds and animals that lived here will come back.”

Aang considered it for a moment, and smiled at Katara. She was so smart! She’d known exactly what to say to cheer him up. “Thanks, Katara.”

Just then, an old man came along, and somehow knew that Aang was the Avatar!

 _Oh_. He looked down at the bright blue markings on his hands. Yeah, he was actually kind of easy to spot. That, and how big Appa was.

Apparently, the old man’s village needed Aang’s help, but as they reached the village and talked to their leader, it turned out that they needed his help with a _spirit_. The black-and-white spirit Hei Bai was abducting people from the village, and as the winter solstice came closer, Hei Bai wouldn’t even need to cross over from the Spirit World to the natural world, because the line between them would be blurred completely. Once the solstice arrived, who knew what would happen?

_Monkeyfeathers!_

Aang had talked to Zuko about going to the Spirit World someday, but he hadn’t thought it was going to be happening _this_ soon! Zuko was making his to-do list come true _wayyy_ ahead of schedule!

He wondered whether he should maybe talk to Zuko about maybe getting some big muscles and a cool beard. The big muscles would definitely help with Hei Bai, and the beard would look cool.

“So, what do you want me to do, exactly?” He asked, unsure as to whether he actually wanted to know the answer.

The old guy started talking about how the Avatar was the bridge between man and spirits, which honestly sounded a bit weird to Aang. He pictured himself lying down over a river with his arms and legs stretched out, and Momo running back and forth over him.

“That’s me!” He managed a grin. “Spirit bridge, at your service!”

Yet again, Katara seemed to know that he needed someone to talk to, and she drew him aside to talk to him. But she didn’t seem to know anything about the Spirit World, either.

“So… Can you help these people?” She asked, looking a little worried.

“I have to try, don't I?” Aang said, although he didn’t know _what_ or _how_ he was supposed to try. “Maybe whatever I have to do will just…” he shrugged helplessly. “Come to me?”

“I think you can do it, Aang,” Katara told him, giving him a reassuring smile.

“Yeah,” Sokka nodded, before he paused. His face fell. “We're all going to get eaten by a spirit monster.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” Aang asked, feeling a bit annoyed now. Sokka didn’t believe in him, and Katara wasn’t giving him any help! “I don’t know how I’m supposed to get to the Spirit World! I don’t know the rules about that stuff!”

Sokka shrugged. “Sorry, buddy. I never really got rules and stuff – Gran-Gran always told me off for breaking them, anyway…”

“Shut up, Sokka,” Zuko muttered, before he turned to face Aang. “Remember your airbending? You said that you airbend by remembering that you’re free to just _bend_. It’s not about rules, it’s about freedom.”

“Um…” From the way Katara was looking at Zuko, Aang wasn’t the only one confused. “So?”

Zuko gestured like Aang was the one not making sense. “So why can’t you just be free to go to the Spirit World? There’s no reason you can’t do it. It’s not about the rules, it’s about freedom.”

Aang thought about it for a moment. Zuko was right! If he was the Avatar, and he was supposed to talk to spirits, there wouldn’t be any reason he _couldn’t_ talk to the black-and-white spirit Hei Bai. So he could just go and see if he could do it!

“Thanks, Zuko,” he said relievedly. “I’ll go and see if that works. There shouldn’t be any reason it won’t! It’ll be fine!”

“Not now you’ve said that,” Sokka muttered darkly, but Aang was pretty sure he was just being a pessimist.

…

Zuko watched with arms folded as Aang stepped down from the hall and wandered out towards the entrance to the village. Sokka and Katara seemed as nervous as he did, with what seemed like the rest of the village packed in with them as they watched Aang prepare to take on a forest spirit.

“Hello, spirit?” The Avatar called. “Can you hear me?”

Zuko resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The way Uncle had told the story of his journey to the Spirit World, he had needed to fast for three days and walk over hot coals to purify his body and his spirit before he had been able to ascend and cross the boundary separating the mortal realm from the Spirit World. Clearly, Aang favored a less formal approach.

Uncle was going to be very annoyed with Zuko if this went wrong.

“This isn’t right,” Sokka said. “We can't sit here and cower while Aang waits for some monster to show up.”

Zuko silently agreed, but he couldn’t see what the other options were. He hadn’t seen any spirits like Uncle had, but from some of the stories he’d heard, they didn’t take kindly to mortals messing about with their business. Aang was probably the best person for the job.

“If anyone can save us, he can,” the old wanderer said sagely, neatly proving Zuko’s point.

“He still shouldn't have to face this alone,” Sokka muttered darkly.

Zuko remembered that one of the laws of Agni Kai was that it was single combat. There were no seconds, and no interference was permitted. The combatants could only strike at their opponent, and they could not attack spectators or onlookers.

He hoped the spirits followed similar rules of engagement. He hoped that Aang wasn’t facing the same kind of monster that had showed up to face _him_.

Uncle would be pretty pissed at Zuko if things ended badly here.

The sun had set, and Zuko had to ball his hands into fists on his folded arms as he watched Aang spin his staff and set it down on the ground. A quick look to his right let him see that Katara and Sokka were watching on just as tensely.

“Okay,” Aang called out. His voice travelled up to the village hall in the silence of the early night. “Well… I guess that's settled, then.”

The way his voice pitched up at the end of his sentence made it sound like he was asking a question, but Zuko wasn’t really sure _who_ he was trying to ask. It’s not like any of them had any experience dealing with spirits, and if anyone in the village did, they wouldn’t have needed his help in dealing with Hei Bai.

“Is travelling with the Avatar always so bereft of occurrences?” The village leader asked dryly.

“I wish,” Sokka muttered. Zuko silently agreed; hearing that Katara and Aang had been planning on getting themselves into a Fire Nation prison had probably taken ten years off his life.

A crashing _boom_ noise shook him back to reality, and he looked out the window again. The forest spirit had showed up!

And it was trying to blow Aang up!

He started towards the door, but a hand on his shoulder held him back. He turned back to see the old guy from the forest shaking his head.

“Only the Avatar stands a chance against the Hei Bai,” he said solemnly.

Zuko snarled. He had been left to face his opponent alone at his Agni Kai. He wasn’t going to let Aang face down a spirit on his own!

He wasn’t sure what he could _do_ to help – firebending would probably piss off the whole village, and Uncle hadn’t told him anything about dao swords affecting spirits – but he had to do _something_.

He set off for the door again, but the old man grabbed at his arm.

“What are you _doing?_ ” He shouted as Sokka sprinted past him.

“Sokka, wait!” Katara cried out.

“Stop her!” The village leader shouted. “It’s not safe!”

“You must remain here,” the old guy told Zuko. He looked outside again, and Zuko could see fear in his eyes. “The Spirit World is _dangerous_.”

“I don’t _care_ –” Zuko yanked himself free. “Aang’s out there, and I’m not going to leave him fighting it alone –”

Katara screamed and tore herself away from the man holding her shoulder, racing out of the door.

“Katara!”

 _Agni_ , first Aang, then Sokka, now Katara – Uncle was going to kill Zuko if this went wrong.

Katara had a head start on him, but he was a quick runner and he had longer legs, and he caught up to her at the village entrance. She was staring out into the forest, breathing quickly and shaking.

“Katara?”

She didn’t seem to hear him, so he tried again, to another non-response.

As the rest of the villagers joined them, Zuko turned to the old man who had stopped him from jumping out into the village. “What happened?” He demanded.

“Hei Bai,” the old man breathed, looking out to the forest. “He took the boy.”

“He _took_ Aang?” Zuko’s head spun. The Spirit World clearly played by different rules to the mortal realm.

Oh, man, Uncle was going to kill Zuko if Aang got stuck in the Spirit World. Zuko had come along with the group to keep the Avatar from getting into trouble – getting kidnapped by a spirit was pretty much the _definition_ of getting into trouble.

“He took Sokka.”

Zuko jerked back around to Katara. “He _what?_ ”

“He took Sokka,” she repeated quietly. Her breathing had slowed, but her hands had clenched into fists and she was blinking rapidly.

“He threw his boomerang,” she continued. “But it didn’t do anything – so he ran towards it, and it just –” she gulped, and Zuko watched with horror as she sank down to the dirt.

“It _took_ him,” she choked out, tears running down her face. “And Aang just went _after_ it, and they’re _gone_ , they just _left_ , they’re _gone_ –”

Zuko’s legs almost buckled, and he had to force himself upright.

Sokka had been kidnapped by a spirit, and Aang was lost in the forest trying to find them. Oh, _Agni_.

Uncle was going to _kill_ Zuko.


	13. Chapter 13

Whilst all the other villagers had started to drift back to their homes after a few minutes, Katara had stayed by the village entrance for what seemed like hours.

 _They couldn’t just be gone_ , she told herself. Sokka was her big brother, he’d always known how to get out of the situations he got himself into. And Aang was the Avatar! The _Avatar_ couldn’t just disappear – well, he _could_ vanish for a hundred years, but that was different, that wasn’t the same – this was Aang they were talking about here, he couldn’t just be _gone_.

They couldn’t just be gone.

At least Zuko was still here. She wouldn’t have thought she would have said it earlier today, but she was glad he was still around. He might have been Fire Nation, but he was still a part of their group. If she’d lost everyone she was travelling with at once, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to cope.

She’d lost _so much_ in the past few days. First her mother’s necklace, and now Sokka and Aang. It was like everything was being taken away from her!

She checked that Zuko was – _still there_ , she breathed a sigh of relief. He was a few steps behind her, silently pacing back and forth. When he saw that she was watching him, he stopped.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Was I distracting you?”

Katara would probably have been grateful for a distraction. She shook her head. “No – no, it’s fine.”

“I just –” his long fingers flexed. “I feel like I need to do _something_.”

She knew what he meant, and chanced a glance out into the forest. “We could go and look for them?” she suggested, but she already knew that they couldn’t.

Zuko was already shaking his head. “You can’t track spirits. Aang was on his glider, and it’s dark. We can go tomorrow, but until then…”

Katara forced herself to control her breathing. “I just – I _hate_ waiting,” she choked out. “I’ve just been _waiting_ – for Dad to come back, for the North Pole, for the Avatar, for _something_ that could help end the war – and it’s just –” she struggled to find the words.

“I, um. When I was little, my Uncle went off to – uh, a trip. For his work. And he took my cousin along with him.”

“I don’t _care_ , Zuko!” The knotted ball of fear, worry, anxiety and _helplessness_ in her stomach made her lash out. “I don’t care about your Fire Nation Uncle, _or_ your cousin!”

Zuko swallowed. “Okay – sorry. That’s cool, sorry. I just thought, like, they went off, and Aang and Sokka have gone off – except, you know, they’ll come back, but my cousin –”

“They haven’t _gone off_ , Zuko,” she turned away from him and dropped down to sit on the dirt. “They’ve been _taken!_ And I don’t _know_ if they’ll come back!”

Just like her Dad, she thought miserably. Dad was out there and for all she knew, he could be in danger _right now_. She didn’t know _anything_ about the Spirit World – she didn’t want to think about what might have happened to Sokka and Aang.

But they couldn’t just be gone, she repeated to herself. They had to come back. they couldn’t just be gone. Her brother always came back from his fishing trips. Granted, he didn’t always come back with fish, but he always came back. And Aang was the Avatar, the one her grandmother had told her stories about; the one who kept the balance, who would return to save the world.

He _had_ to come back.

She heard footsteps coming from behind her, and she turned around. The old man from before had approached them, carrying blankets.

“I’m sure they’ll be back,” he said simply, settling a blanket around Katara’s shoulders.

“I know,” she mumbled automatically. She knew they’d be back. They had to come back.

“You should get some rest,” the old man encouraged her.

“Everything’s going to be okay.” If she repeated it enough times, maybe Aang would be back with Sokka before she stopped saying it.

“Your brother is in good hands,” the old man said with a reassuring air. He sounded kind of like Bato did when Sokka had to go and get patched up for another fishhook injury. “I would be shocked if the Avatar returned without him.”

“Can you get us both some tea?” Zuko asked lowly. “Two jasmine, one _shōgayu?_ And a candle?”

The old man nodded before he turned back to Katara. “The sun is rising,” he said simply. “Perhaps he will return soon.”

As the old man set off back to the village, Zuko sat down beside Katara. He kept a careful distance, which she was grateful for, but he was fidgeting. He kept glancing over to her, as if waiting for her to speak.

“ _What?_ ” She snapped eventually. If he was waiting for her to speak, she might as well _speak_.

“I was just wondering if, uh. I know you don’t like me firebending – which is cool!” He hastened to add, looking a bit nervous. “Uncle said I shouldn’t be ostentatious, so I wanted to ask – uh, when that guy comes back with a candle, do you mind if I meditate?” He finished in a rush.

For a moment, Katara wasn’t sure what he was asking. “Meditate?” She repeated dubiously. “Like what Aang does?”

“Not sure it’s quite the same,” Zuko mumbled, before speaking a bit more clearly. “Uh, actually, Aang’s not great at meditating. He gets sort of distracted. But it helps me focus, so – it’s good for my firebending. I’ll be quiet, though,” he added. His amber eyes looked soft in the dawn light, even as the dark shadow under his right eye was a contrast to his pale, smooth skin.

The left side of his face was a red, angry burn.

She wondered how it had happened. Maybe it had been an accident, where he’d tried a firebending move when he was distracted and it had gone wrong. She didn’t really want to be around Zuko when he was _firebending_ , but she was feeling pretty stressed herself. If meditating would help with that…

She saw Appa approaching, and breathed a sigh of relief as she was saved from her dilemma.

“It's okay, Appa,” she soothed the bison, leading him away from Zuko. “Don't worry. I'm sure they're on their way back. I bet they even found you a bunch of moon peaches for a treat.”

“Where are you going?” Zuko called after her. “That old guy’s bringing tea!”

“I’m going to get Appa some hay,” she shouted back. “Then we’re going to go look for Aang!”

“What about the tea? One of the jasmine’s for you!”

Katara remembered what Iroh had said about how his nephew hated jasmine tea, and smirked to herself. “Drink it! Maybe it’ll help calm you down so you can focus!”

…

The jasmine tea had long since gone cold when Zuko finished his meditation, and he had to heat it up in his hands before he could drink it. He did so with a grimace after every sip.

He just didn’t _like_ jasmine, no matter how often Uncle had tried to convert him. They both hated assam, and the past three years had given Zuko some taste for ginseng, but jasmine was a step too far. But Uncle had kept claiming it was calming and had made him drink some along with his _shōgayu_ after every morning’s firebending practice, and Zuko had learnt the value of discipline in his firebending. He was pretty sure he was never going to get the smell of jasmine out of his robes, no matter how hard he tried.

Uncle would have said that having _two_ cups of jasmine after finishing one’s meditation counted as decadence rather than discipline, but Zuko was pretty sure this was just another instance of the universe trying to toughen him up.

He gave up on the second cup after barely drinking half, and poured it onto the ground.

“Can’t even get _shōgayu_ out here,” he muttered to himself irritably – before remembering that jasmine was supposed to be _calming_.

He took another deep breath, and stood to his feet.

Katara had flown off on Appa a while ago, but she and Zuko had agreed that she would be back after three hours. She’d seemed particularly keen to stress that he under _no_ circumstances go off to look for Aang and Sokka without her. Zuko had bristled at the command – what, did she think he was going to try and _kidnap_ them if she wasn’t around? – but something in her eyes and the way she was biting her lip had made him hold back.

From what she had said, she must have been feeling pretty worried about them, and he didn’t want to add to her worries. So he had just nodded and told her that he’d be here when she got back. And here he was, waiting around with nothing to do.

He went up to the hall, where the village leader and the old man were waiting. They had introduced themselves as Rama and Hanyot, and they’d seemed rather unconcerned at the fact that the Avatar, the last hope for the world, had been last seen disappearing after a spirit and was now apparently missing.

“The Avatar seemed confident in his ability,” Rama told Zuko placidly, observing him pacing back and forth with little more than polite interest. “I see no reason to interfere with his task.”

Zuko groaned with frustration. “I’m not trying to _interfere_. I’m trying to help!”

“Perhaps it’s for the best if we let the Avatar do his job,” old Hanyot shrugged. “Live and let live, work and let work. He’ll be back; just wait and see.”

Zuko was about to tell these complacent old guys that he wasn’t going to _wait_ on anything when he heard Appa’s low roar. As he hurried outside, Katara was already making her way towards him – without Aang or Sokka, he noted with a sinking feeling.

“You’re still here,” she said with what sounded like relief.

Had she thought he was just going to run off? Zuko took a little offence at that. She was as bad as Uncle! None of them had any faith in him.

“Are you okay?” He asked, checking her over. She didn’t look hurt; her hair loopies were a little messier than usual, but that might have just been the wind when Appa was flying.

“I’m fine,” she waved his concerns off. “Have they come back?”

He swallowed. “No. Not yet.”

Katara’s shoulders turned inwards, and her blue eyes seemed a little less bright. She turned back to Appa, who let out a quiet rumble.

Zuko had tried to encourage her earlier – he’d thought that she had seemed to enjoy telling him about her home and her family at the South Pole, so maybe she would want to hear about _his_ family. Well – not his little sister, and certainly not the Fire Lord, but Uncle Iroh and Lu Ten. He always felt a little better when he remembered Lu Ten – his older cousin had been brave, fearless, and dutiful, and all the servant girls at the palace had always seemed happier when he was around. That was the kind of man Prince Lu Ten had been – he’d made everyone happy.

But it didn’t seem to have worked for Katara; if anything, she’d seemed angry at Zuko for bringing him up. It was probably for the best that she had cut him off, he had to admit to himself – after some reflection, he had realized that telling Katara a story about how his cousin had died and his Uncle had never quite been the same afterwards maybe wouldn’t have been the best idea.

“Well, we can keep looking,” he offered. “We can’t give up just yet.”

“I know,” Katara nodded. She looked much paler than usual, probably because she hadn’t slept last night. After the prison break, and now another sleepless night, Zuko worried that she might keel over.

“I’ll go out on Appa next,” he told her, trying to tell Rama and Hanyot with his eyes that they should get Katara a blanket. “You should get some rest. I’ll be back in a few hours, okay?”

She shook her head. “No! I can keep looking – I’m not that tired, I’ll be fine.”

Zuko risked putting his hands on her shoulders. She didn’t shake him off, which he counted as a minor triumph.

“Katara,” he tried. “You haven’t slept, and someone should probably be here in case they come back while I’m gone. Get some rest.”

Her eyelids fluttered and she swayed alarmingly. Zuko prepared himself to catch her, but Katara caught herself and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Okay,” she managed. “Okay, I’ll –” she yawned. “I’ll stay. Sleep. But you’d better come back,” she poked him in the chest. It kind of hurt.

“I will,” he promised solemnly. “I’ll be back in three hours.”

“And you’d better wake me up.”

“I will.”

She gave him what he thought might have been a threatening glare, but it seemed to lose much of its power when she was blinking slowly like a sleepy crococat and missing a frying pan.

“Fine,” she eventually mumbled, turning away.

Zuko and Appa flew over the forest, searching – well, Zuko didn’t know _where_ they were searching. This forest was _huge_ , and that massive burnt patch still only accounted for a small part of the vast area. He just hoped Appa remembered where Katara had been searching earlier, and that they weren’t just retracing her steps. After three hours, there was still no trace of Aang or Sokka when he returned to the village.

“Do not worry,” the old man counselled him placidly. It was like Zuko was thirteen years old and stuck on the _Wani_ again, he reflected bitterly.

“Where _are_ you, Avatar?” He muttered to himself.

…

Sokka had once thought riding the mail chutes in Omashu would be the worst trip he’d ever go on. Oh, how wrong he had been.

The Spirit World had been even worse than Omashu!

At least in Omashu you only had to deal with high-speed carts, overly-enthusiastic airbenders, and the occasional set of lethally-sharp spears coming up from behind you. In the Spirit World, angry panda bears kidnapped you and went off into the middle of a forest, and then you found yourself somewhere that was decidedly _not_ Senlin Forest.

Anyone who willingly went to the Spirit World was straight-up _kooky_ , he decided. _Man_ , he was glad to be back in the human world!

Judging from the way Aang was getting his marbles and acorns out every few minutes and giving them a quick whirl, he wasn’t the only one glad to be back. Apparently, Aang hadn’t been able to bend in the Spirit World. When he’d said this, Katara and Zuko had both gotten weird looks. Probably a bender thing, Sokka decided. They all seemed super invested in being able to bend. Meanwhile, Sokka couldn’t bend, so he’d have to find something else to be super invested in.

 _Not_ rocking up to a temple on the summer solstice in the middle of the Fire Nation just because Aang had apparently had a spirit vision? That seemed to fit the bill.

“We can’t go to the Fire Nation,” he declared firmly, folding his arms and looking from Katara to Zuko, daring them to disagree with him. “No way.”

“I don’t want to either, Sokka,” Katara agreed, looking over to where Aang was talking to the leader of the village. “I was so worried about you guys – I don’t want you ending up in danger just after we got out of the last mess.”

“We have to go,” Zuko mumbled. “If the Avatar’s past lives are trying to contact him, we have to help him figure it out.”

Sokka scowled at him. “You _sure_ you’re not just trying to get Aang caught by the Fire Nation?”

Zuko scowled back, and it was really annoying how that scar made his scowl look even grumpier than Sokka’s.

“Trust me,” he said through gritted teeth. “Going to the Fire Nation is the _last_ thing I want to do. But we’ve just tried messing with spirit stuff on our own, and it didn’t go well. If there’s a chance Avatar Roku can help Aang figure this out, we should take it.”

There Zuko was again – trying to take charge! Sokka pointed his boomerang at him. “What happened to all that airbending crap? Weren’t you saying ‘it’s not about the rules, it’s about freedom’? Why’re you suddenly so invested in following the rules?”

“Me going to the Fire Nation is me _not_ following the rules,” Zuko retorted. “But we need this, Sokka. Aang needs it. The _world_ needs Aang to know what he’s doing.”

Sokka considered it for a moment. If Zuko was selling them out, they stood a pretty good chance of ending out on the ice with no polar bear dogs to pull the sled. Or, rather, ending up in the Fire Nation without any chance of escaping. Same principle.

But if the world needed Aang to know what he was doing…

Part of being a man was knowing where you were needed, Sokka remembered.

He stiffened his resolve and nodded. “Okay. You know the Fire Nation. Where’s he supposed to go?”

“Sokka!” Katara exclaimed. “We can’t send Aang into the Fire Nation! Did you get hit on the head in the Spirit World?”

“Aang’s the Avatar,” Sokka reminded her of what Gran-Gran had said. “He’s the world’s only chance, Katara. If we found him for a reason, this Roku guy’s probably talking to him for a reason.”

Katara looked like she was ready to keep arguing, but Aang’s voice cut across their conversation before she could say anything.

“Let’s go, Appa! Come on, boy!”

The kid was yanking on the reins of the magic flying bison, but apparently even the Avatar couldn’t make a ten-ton bison move if it didn’t want to. Sokka could sympathize.

“Please don't go, Aang,” Katara pleaded with Aang. “The world can't afford to lose you to the Fire Nation.” She moved to reach towards him, but stopped herself. “Neither can I.”

Oh, man. Sokka knew what that was. After – after _Mom_ , Katara had kept asking Gran-Gran to tell her the story of the Avatar, who kept the balance and would eventually restore the balance. Aang was her big hope that the Fire Nation would finally be defeated, and if he got caught…

Whatever Aang was saying to try and convince Katara simply wasn’t working. Ha – Sokka had been there, buddy. No matter how good his argument, if his little sister didn’t want to hear it, it just wouldn’t go through.

“We're not letting you go into the Fire Nation, Aang!” She said. She looked like she was about to stamp her foot on the ground. Sokka kind of hoped she wouldn’t bring up a _third_ spiritual presence – he’d just dealt with _Hei Bai_ , for La’s sake.

And if going to the Fire Nation meant that Aang could figure out how to deal with spirits, Sokka knew it was what he needed to do. “At least, not without your friends.”

Aang looked relieved to see that he wasn’t going to be making the journey alone; and he looked even happier when the leader of Senlin Village gave him a small bundle.

“It's a long journey to the Crescent Island. You'll have to fly fast to have any chance of making it before sundown. Good luck.”

“Great,” Zuko said impatiently. “Come on, guys, let’s _go_.”

“Hey,” Sokka disagreed indignantly. “We’re going when _I_ say we go.”

“Say it already, then,” Zuko challenged him. He was already throwing his stuff into Appa’s saddle. “Hurry it up.”

Sheesh. Zuko seemed even tenser than usual. What was _his_ deal?

“Thanks for your help,” Aang bowed deeply to the village leader – and to that old guy with him. As he straightened up and took a flying jump onto Appa’s head, Momo landed next to him and dropped an acorn into his lap. He smiled and held it up. “Guys, look! This is another acorn – the forest is already growing back!”

“That’s great, buddy,” Sokka didn’t want to hear _anything_ else about that dumb forest. “Maybe we can get going before we actually _see_ it growing, huh?”

Aang grinned. “Yip yip, Appa!”

Sokka sighed and closed his eyes as he leant back against Appa’s saddle. Senlin, Gaipan, Makapu. That had been the original plan. Then things had kind of melted, and the journey had become Senlin, Gaipan by way of the Spirit World, and then onto Makapu. That was kind of manageable. Not perfect, not ideal, but manageable.

Senlin, then the Spirit World, then the Fire Nation, and only then onto Gaipan and Makapu?

Sokka thought that if things kept going the way they were going, Gaipan was going to be a total _mess_.

If they even _got_ that far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rama is named after a Thai monarch; Hanyot is named for Han, a common Chinese surname, and ‘yot’, a common Thai nickname.


	14. Chapter 14

Katara couldn’t help but keep checking that Sokka and Aang were still _there_. They’d gone, and she hadn’t had any idea what had happened to them; she’d almost gone out of her mind with worry, but now they were _back_. All she wanted to do was tell Appa to get them to the North Pole as soon as possible – no more delays, no sudden detours, and _definitely_ no trips to Fire Nation temples on the winter solstice!

“Are you sure Avatar Roku wanted you to go to the Fire Nation?” She tried again. “There might be a temple on a crescent island somewhere in the Earth Kingdom?”

Aang shook his head again. “Sorry, Katara. You didn’t have to come with me, you know – it’s not too late for us to stop, and for you guys to leave.”

That was, somehow, even worse than the prospect of going to the Fire Nation together. She wasn’t going to leave Aang to face it alone.

“No, Aang,” she answered firmly. “It’ll be okay. The sooner we’re there, the sooner we can leave.”

“Can’t you make Appa go any faster?” Sokka asked.

“Yeah,” Aang gulped. “But there’s just one little problem.”

He pointed up ahead, where a whole bunch of warships were waiting. Katara hadn’t ever seen so many ships. They seemed to stretch on _forever_.

“Zhao,” Zuko muttered from Katara’s left.

“Zhao?” Sokka repeated. “What’s Zhao?”

“Is that a rude word in the Fire Nation?” Aang asked.

Zuko shook his head. “Zhao’s a commander in the navy; he’s in charge of the Mo Ce Sea blockade. He’s all kinds of rude words, though.”

“If we fly north, we can go around the Fire Nation ships and avoid the blockade,” Aang guessed. “It's the only way.”

Zuko was already shaking his head. “There’s no time. We’ll have to run it.”

Katara hated to agree with Zuko, but he was right. The sun was already well past its highest point, and pretty soon it would begin its rapid descent.

Aang cast a helpless look towards them. “This is exactly why I didn't want you to come! It's too dangerous!”

Katara remembered the rush of fear she’d felt when Sokka and Aang had been taken. She took it, and froze it, like water into ice, into protective resolve. She _wasn’t_ going to leave Aang to deal with something like that again!

“And that's exactly why we're here,” she promised him.

“Uh, guys?” Sokka pointed down. “Hate to break up the hope and the positivity and all that, but – _incoming!_ ”

Aang yelped and Appa bellowed as flaming fireballs suddenly filled the air around them. The blockade must have attacked!

Katara screamed and held tight onto Appa’s saddle, hoping against hope that Appa could make it through. The air was filled with burning heat and the roar of explosions, and Zuko gave a shout as one fireball exploded right in front of them.

“Hang on!” Aang yelled as they burst through the flames. Appa let out a cry, and Zuko was quick to put out the embers in his fur.

“Everyone okay?” He called out. “Aang? Appa?”

“Never mind us,” Sokka pointed out disgruntledly. “Water Tribe, right here! Don’t ignore me!”

Katara and Zuko both ignored him.

“Appa’s okay,” Aang called back. “Aren’t ya, buddy?”

Appa rumbled a reply that Katara _really_ hoped was something like ‘I’ve never been better! I can get us to Crescent Island in no time! And then onto the North Pole, where fireballs and crazy Fire Nation commanders can’t come after us!’

Appa flew up into the clouds, where they would hopefully be hidden from the warships. But it quickly became clear that although the warships couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see the warships – or what they were firing at them. Appa was surprisingly agile for his size, but it was still hard for him to dodge past all the danger, and his movements were becoming increasingly wild. The more fireballs the ships threw at them, the more frantic he became, until two fireballs collided in front of them, and Appa roared and twisted.

Katara gripped onto Appa’s saddle so tightly, her fingers _ached_. Sokka shouted, and for a brief, horrible moment, she opened her eyes and had an image of him falling off Appa. They might have been Water Tribe, but falling thousands of feet into the ocean would kill him!

But Zuko had managed to grab a hold of his shirt and haul him back into Appa’s saddle. His jaw clenched and his arms rippled with the tension as Sokka scrambled back in.

“Still right here,” Sokka panted. “Thanks for not ignoring me, man.”

“Aang!” Katara shouted. “Take us below the clouds!”

“But they’ll see us!”

“We’ll see them!” Zuko yelled. His rasping voice was even harsher at this volume.

“This is crazy, Aang,” Sokka agreed. “Take us _down!_ ”

Katara took a moment to note that they were all in agreement before Aang took Appa into a steep dive to break the cloud cover. The sea was rapidly coming closer.

“Uh…” She exchanged a worried look with Sokka. “Aang…?”

“Hold on!” He instructed them, leaning forward. His back was rigid with tension.

One of the ships had launched a fireball, and it was heading straight for them.

“ _Aang!_ ”

“Hold on!”

Zuko spat out a curse, and Katara almost slapped him. Gran-Gran would have washed his mouth out with soap for that. But if there was ever a time when you were allowed to swear, she figured it was when you were about to be blown up by a fireball and sent crashing into the sea in a million pieces.

Just when Katara had resigned herself to her fate, Aang leapt up off Appa, and in a feat of acrobatic skill, sent a powerful blast of air towards the fireball with a spinning kick. It blasted the flaming boulder clean apart, and although Katara threw her hands over her face to protect herself from any debris, nothing seemed to hit them. She and Sokka helped Aang back onto Appa, and they were suddenly seeing the ships pass below them.

“We made it!” Aang cried out, slumping back into Appa’s fur with a sigh of relief.

“We got into the Fire Nation,” Sokka agreed weakly. “Great.”

“Crescent Island should be in that direction,” Zuko instructed Aang, pointing somewhere to the north. “We’ll need to hurry before Zhao comes after us.”

“He’s going to follow us?” Katara groaned and cast a hateful eye back at the ships.

“He wants to capture Aang,” Zuko informed her. “And – do you think they were close enough to get a good look at us?”

“Buddy, we’re on a sky bison,” Sokka answered. “You don’t need a good look to figure out it’s the Avatar.”

“They’re not going to get a good look,” Katara declared. “We’re going to be in and out of that temple before Zhao even shows up.”

…

Zuko’s father had declared him banished whilst he was still being treated in the palace hospital, and he’d been unconscious when he’d been packed onto his ship. He had woken up in Earth Kingdom waters with the left side of his face in blazing agony. He had still been wearing the _prajiad_ bands he had tied around his arms for the Agni Kai.

The ship’s doctor had done the best he could, and he had managed to save most of Zuko’s sight and hearing on his left side. But nothing could have been done about the scar, he had told Zuko. He would have it all his life.

The left side of his face was prickling as Appa flew over Fire Nation waters.

This was the first time he had seen home in almost three years, he thought dully to himself as he moved to the back of Appa’s saddle to sort through his bag. He quickly found what he was looking for. The bands were stiff with dried sweat.

_Prajiad_ had begun as fabric torn from a mother’s dress, to symbolize a mother’s blessing for the safety of their child. Before the Agni Kai, Zuko hadn’t wanted to ruin any of his mom’s clothes – if she came _back_ , what kind of welcome would that have been?

“What are those?”

He looked up to see Katara watching him curiously.

“They’re supposed to be for good luck,” he answered.

Katara looked down at the bands again – they were little more than rags, really. “I didn’t have you down as someone who believes in luck.”

Zuko didn’t need luck. He didn’t want it. “I’m not.”

Katara frowned. “Why do you have them, then?”

He gritted his teeth. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

She looked offended, but Zuko concentrated on setting the cloth on fire. He tossed them off Appa and saw them vanish into the wind. The last time he had worn symbols of his mother for luck, his father had set his face on fire. He didn’t want to talk about that, either.

He had been banished wearing _prajiad_ , but he would not return wearing them. They hadn’t been his mother’s, anyway.

“There it is!” Aang’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. “The island where Roku's dragon took me!”

Crescent Island was one of the smaller islands in the Nation. It didn’t have many notable natural features, and it wasn’t very densely populated – the only permanent inhabitants were the Fire Sages, really – but the sight still took Zuko’s breath away.

_Home_.

As they walked up to the temple, Zuko’s hands itched for the weight of his dao blades. But firebending would most likely be more useful, especially if the temple wasn’t as abandoned as it seemed.

Besides, if he was going to be breaking the rules of his banishment, he might as well break _all_ the rules.

“It’s almost sundown,” Aang told them, as if they couldn’t track the sun’s course and see the growing gloom for themselves. “We’d better hurry!”

Zuko gritted his teeth as they passed through an enormous chamber. Something wasn’t right. They’d made it all the way to the temple without any interference.

This was _too_ easy.

“Wait,” Sokka said suddenly, and Zuko’s heart sank, because _of course_ it was too easy. “I think I heard something.”

As Zuko spun, he stifled a groan. The Fire Sages. “ _Run_.”

“What?” Sokka cocked his head. “Why’re we – _oh, slush!_ ” He yelped, as one of the Fire Sages shot a fireball at him.

Zuko stepped into a bending stance and snuffed the flame out. “Go!”

“We’ve got this!” Aang agreed.

“What?” Zuko’s hands twitched, and he had the sudden urge to grab the Avatar and _throw_ him after Sokka and Katara. “ _Move_ , Aang!”

Rather than listen to him, Aang sent a powerful air blast towards the Fire Sages. They fell over like the skittles whenever Lu Ten had humored Zuko and shown him how to bowl a strike.

“That works,” Zuko managed, setting off with Aang at a sprint.

“Thanks!” Aang shot him a grin. “I just made it up as I went!”

Sokka and Katara were waiting for them.

“Who _are_ those guys?” Katara demanded. “If you’ve tricked us –”

“They’re the Fire Sages,” Zuko explained, looking for directions. “They’re meant to help the Avatar keep the balance, but Fire Lord Sozin made them swear loyalty to the Fire Lord a hundred years ago.”

“So they’re the bad guys?” Sokka nodded. “Gotcha.”

“Not all of us.”

Zuko turned to face a man dressed in red and wearing a tall hat. _Shit_.

Rather than attack them, the man dropped to his knees, much to everyone’s surprise.

“Avatar,” the man said, his forehead touching the floor. “I know why you’re here. You wish to speak to Avatar Roku. I can take you to him.”

Zuko was about to throw a warning fireball when Aang nodded and set off. “Okay!”

“ _Aang!_ ” Zuko yelped. He could hear Sokka and Katara shouting the airbender’s name in similar fashions, but Aang was already halfway down the corridor. They exchanged a look, and set off after him.

“Who are you?” Sokka asked the Fire Sage suspiciously. “And where are you taking us?”

“I am Shyu,” the Fire Sage introduced himself as they began climbing a spiral staircase. “And I’m taking you to the temple’s inner sanctuary. Avatar,” he turned to Aang. “We have waited many years for your return. I am glad to see that you are well.”

Aang looked a bit embarrassed. “Uh – thanks?”

Shyu turned to Zuko next. “And I am glad to see that you are well too, Pri –”

“You can call me Lee,” Zuko interrupted him hastily. He glanced from Aang to Sokka, and then to Katara.

Shyu raised his eyebrows. “Lee,” he said slowly.

“That’s not your name,” Aang pointed out.

“You told Haru’s family that your name was Lee, too,” Sokka remembered.

Katara said nothing, but gave him an evaluating look.

Zuko growled. “It’s a nickname. Does it _matter?_ We don’t have _time_ for this!” He turned back to Shyu. “How does the Avatar get into the sanctuary?”

Shyu glanced between him and the rest of the group, before apparently deciding to let the matter rest. “This way… Lee.”

He slid back a tile, and they clambered into what must have been the outer sanctuary. Massive columns with winding dragon statues filled the room, and a huge door was covered in a device holding five open-mouthed dragons.

It was all very impressive, Zuko noted – if a little out of step with what the modern-day Fire Nation propaganda said about the dragons.

Then again, Fire Nation propaganda said the dragons were gone, so…

“No!”

Shyu was looking at the door with an ashen look.

“What’s wrong?” Aang asked, popping up at the Fire Sage’s shoulder.

“The sanctuary doors. They’re closed!”

…

Aang was tugging on the sanctuary doors, but Sokka was thinking fast. If they needed five fire blasts, they needed five firebenders – unless they could get the _blasts_ without the _benders_ –

“I think I can help you out,” he said confidently.

Sokka remembered the first time his Dad had showed him this trick. He’d been twelve, and it had been his third hunting trip – or was it his fourth? Either way. Dad had told him that he would have shown him sooner, but he’d thought Gran-Gran would be mad at him if he’d scared Sokka with explosions when he was ten or eleven. It was one of the few times they’d talked about what happened to Mom.

Dad hadn’t talked much about Mom afterwards, but Sokka knew that was because he was the chief of the Tribe, and he had stuff to be doing. He didn’t have time to sit around and talk when stuff needed doing. So Sokka concentrated on putting the last oil bag in the last dragon’s mouth, and hurried back to hide behind a column.

“It's almost sunset,” Katara noted, checking the light in the window anxiously. “Are you ready?”

Aang gave a determined nod. “Definitely.”

“Do it, Shyu,” Zuko ordered the Fire Sage.

_That was my line_ , Sokka thought to himself, but he couldn’t really complain. Shyu lit the twine, and Sokka put his hands over his ears. The muffled _boom_ still rang through his head, though.

Katara and Shyu were coughing as Aang hurried forward to open the door.

“They're still locked!” He reported back, looking at Sokka agitatedly.

_Slush_ , Sokka thought to himself.

“It didn’t work,” Shyu said. Clearly, Fire Sages were trained in firebending _and_ redundant statements.

“Maybe if we just –” Zuko stepped forward and bent a bright orange flame into one of the dragon mouths. Nothing happened.

“That’s not going to _work_ , you idiot,” Sokka snapped frustratedly. “Like Shyu said, you need five Fire Sages, or a fully-realized Avatar – and you’re neither, and we _have_ neither!”

“At least I’m trying something!” Zuko retorted, gesturing to the door.

“Trying something that’s not working,” Sokka pointed out. “There’s a reason I’m the plan guy!”

“Well, your plan didn’t _work_ , Sokka.”

“I don’t get it,” Sokka admitted, crouching down and running his finger through the soot. “That firebending looked as strong as any firebending I've seen.”

Katara looked up with a sudden look of excitement. “Sokka, you’re a genius!”

“What?” Zuko coughed. “No, he’s _not!_ ”

Sokka took great exception to that.

“Yeah,” Aang agreed. “How is Sokka a genius? His plan didn't even work.”

“Look, guys,” Sokka began annoyedly, but Katara waved him down.

“Sokka's plan _didn't_ work,” she explained. “But it _looks_ like it did. Zuko – you’re the quickest runner here, right?”

Zuko exchanged a look with Aang, which Sokka thought was totally unfair. Sure, Aang was an airbender, and that gave him a bit of a boost, but he wasn’t even being _considered_.

“Probably,” Zuko eventually nodded.

“Go and get the Fire Sages,” Katara instructed him. “We need to trick them into opening the inner sanctuary.”

“Hold on a second,” Sokka began, but Zuko had already started moving towards the staircase.

“Did the definition of genius change over the last hundred years?” Aang asked Shyu almost conversationally.

Sokka frowned, at his sister. “Aren’t you worried about whether we can trust Zu – uh, Lee?” He corrected himself, glancing at Shyu.

“I think Katara already gave his name away, Sokka,” Aang pointed out.

“So it _was_ him,” Shyu murmured. “I never thought he would return.”

“You know him?” Katara asked. Sokka felt surprised too.

“I knew your friend when he was a young boy,” Shyu inclined his head. “As I say, I did not expect him to ever return to the Fire Nation, even when the Avatar returned. But if he is here with you, then he must have joined you, Avatar.”

“Zuko’s on our side,” Aang nodded.

“Did you say you knew him when he was a kid?” Sokka asked. “Oh, man, give me the details! You’ve gotta have some embarrassing stories, right?”

“ _Sokka_ ,” Katara said pointedly. “Now’s maybe not the time, okay?”

_Oops_. He smiled sheepishly. “Right.”

Zuko returned after a few minutes, and Aang pulled him behind a pillar.

“They’re on their way,” Zuko panted. “But so’s Zhao.”

Shyu paled. “ _What?_ ”

If the Fire Sage thought that wasn’t good news, that probably wasn’t good news.

“He’s got his guards with him,” Zuko continued. “When the Fire Sages come, I can try and hold him off, but –”

“Make sure he doesn’t see you,” Shyu advised.

Zuko nodded, but Aang looked worried. “Zuko, be careful –”

“He’s after you, Aang,” Zuko cut him off. “We’re here to get you in and out. That’s it.”

“What about the Fire Sages?” Sokka wanted to know. Even if Zuko could deal with Zhao – and he wasn’t entirely sure about that, if Zhao had backup – that still left four evil Fire Sages for them to deal with.

“The Fire Sages won’t attack in the sanctuary,” Shyu stated. “Though they serve the Fire Lord, they cannot desecrate the temple in such a way. But Zhao will.”

As the other Fire Sages hurried their way into the room, Shyu’s expression changed. He looked so worried that even _Sokka_ was slightly fooled, and he was very difficult to fool.

“Come quickly! The Avatar has entered the sanctuary!”

The leading Fire Sage looked confused. “How did he get in?”

“I don't know,” Shyu said. “But look at the scorch marks! And down there!”

As the Fire Sages fanned out to examine the door, Sokka saw Zuko sneak down the stairs.

“He's inside,” one of the Fire Sages decided. “Open the doors, immediately – before he contacts Avatar Roku!”

_Here we go_ , Sokka thought to himself. He and Katara both peered round the edge of their pillar to see the five Sages firebend the dragon locks open. With a groan, the door opened to reveal a sooty Momo sitting on the floor. That dumb lemur always loved having all the attention on him, Sokka thought.

“It's the Avatar's lemur,” the leading Sage realized. “He must have crawled through the pipes! We've been tricked!”

Sokka charged forward and grabbed the nearest Fire Sage, just as Katara rushed another. Shyu and Momo both managed to stop a Fire Sage each from firebending into the room, and Aang rushed forward.

“Stop him!” One of the Fire Sages shouted.

“Go, Aang!” Katara cheered as he sprinted through the closing door. With a groan, it slammed shut, and the room was shocked into silence. Sokka felt a surge of triumph. They’d done it! The Avatar was inside the sanctuary!

So what were they supposed to do in the meantime?

“So…” he mumbled, glancing awkwardly at Shyu. “What happens now?”

“An excellent question,” came a new voice.

Sokka spun around to see a man in a dark uniform holding a flame close to Katara’s head.

“What happens now,” the man continued, “Is that you tell me _exactly_ how to get into that sanctuary.” He sneered. “And then we start the Avatar cycle all over again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A [_Pra Jiad_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pra_Jiad) is an armband used by Muay Thai athletes used to give them confidence and luck. This [super cool post](https://atlaculture.tumblr.com/post/628361918726504448/cultural-anatomy-agni-kai-armbands) has a really awesome take on their symbolism in Zuko’s Agni Kai. :)


	15. Chapter 15

Zuko made his way down the spiral staircase as quickly as he could whilst trying to keep the noise to a minimum. He’d seen Zhao and about a half-dozen firebending soldiers coming up to the temple, and he wasn’t sure how far they would have gotten. Did Zhao know his way around the temple? Zuko doubted it – he had never shown much of a regard for the spirits.

Neither had Zuko, in fairness, but Uncle had always made it clear to him that there were some things mortals weren’t meant to mess with, and whilst Zuko had taken the hint, he wasn’t sure that Zhao was so opposed to messing with spirits.

Zhao would probably know his way around, Zuko decided. It would be typical of the universe.

It took Zuko a few wrong turns, but he eventually found himself in a familiar hallway – this must have been the one Shyu had led Aang down on their way to the sanctuary. He had been growing frustrated with the utterly bewildering layout of the temple – clearly the thinking was that if you were capable of navigating your way around this stupid temple, you’d find navigating the Spirit World a piece of cake by comparison.

Zuko took a moment to regret not bringing his Blue Spirit mask, but he had to acknowledge that it wouldn’t have done him much good. It would have given away his identity to the Avatar, and as far as the Fire Nation knew, the Blue Spirit was based in the Earth Kingdom. It would be strange if they showed up on Crescent Island.

But this meant that Zuko would have to be even more careful than usual in taking out these guards. If Zhao saw his face, he’d know he was breaking the terms of his banishment – and if Zhao knew that, the first thing he’d do would be to take it straight to the Fire Lord.

Bastard would do _anything_ for a promotion, Zuko thought sourly to himself. And if Zhao knew he was breaking his banishment – Zuko _couldn’t_ put Uncle in that kind of danger.

He crept along the corridor, pausing every so often as he went to try and listen out for Zhao and his guards.

_Not the welcome home I had dreamed about_ , he admitted to himself.

When he had seen Crescent Island in the light of the setting sun, Zuko had found himself unable to speak. The smoke from the volcano had been billowing into the air and the lava had been spreading like veins over the rocky hills. When he had set foot on Fire Nation soil for the first time in nearly three years, it had taken everything within Zuko not to fall to his knees, curl up in a ball, and drag his hands through the stones and dirt.

Zuko couldn’t return home unless the Fire Lord restored his honor. He hadn’t been expecting to return so soon. He _definitely_ hadn’t been expecting to return without Uncle.

He could hear voices from the main entrance, Zuko realized. He wasn’t too far away – it sounded like… four, maybe five voices mingling. He thought he’d seen about six or seven bodies as he had tried to find the Fire Sages.

He shot a fireball down the hallway, and when the shouts of alarm rang out, prepared to fight.

He’d managed to take on a half-dozen firebenders at the prison rig without his bending, but it was a lot easier for Zuko to disguise his bending than his face.

But if he could keep his opponents off-balance and confused, they wouldn’t know where to _look_ for his face. Like Uncle always said – all warfare is based on deception.

As the first guards rounded the corner into the dark hallway, Zuko was already there, throwing a fireball down at their feet. As the first man shouted in alarm, they both looked down, and Zuko was able to take advantage of their distraction to knock their heads together and incapacitate them.

He heard running footsteps, and as three other guards came, he could move around the hallway more easily than they could. They were clearly concerned about the possibility of hitting each other, which made Zuko think that they must have been new to working under Zhao. _He_ definitely wouldn’t have cared about injuring his own people if it meant he got what he wanted.

As Zuko threw a punch and sent the last guard reeling, he had to catch them to make sure they didn’t crack their head on the floor. _Was that all of them?_

No, he _definitely_ remembered there being more than five. And as he checked the group, Zhao _definitely_ wasn’t amongst them.

Zuko frowned. Something wasn’t right. The guards had been fairly easy to overpower, and he hadn’t seen anything of Zhao. Was he here? Could he have been somewhere else?

He stiffened as he remembered Bujing’s strategy. Use untrained soldiers as a distraction while you attack with your stronger forces.

_Shit_.

He turned around and sprinted back to the stairs.

As he burst into the room, he could already see that things were going wrong. Zhao and the remainder of his guards had been here all along, and they’d chained Sokka, Katara and Shyu up to the pillars.

Aang wasn’t here, Zuko noted with some relief. Good. That meant he hadn’t been caught yet. But it _did_ mean that if Zhao caught him when he was coming out of the inner sanctuary, they were all done for.

Katara saw him first. “Zuko!”

_Shit_.

Zhao’s eyes widened as he saw Zuko.

_Double shit_.

“You!”

_Oh, Agni’s balls_.

He swallowed, and sank into a bending pose. “Let them go, Zhao!”

Zhao sneered. “You don’t get to order me around anymore, boy. You can change your hair, but you won’t ever change who you are.”

_You don’t have to remind me_. Zuko gritted his teeth. “I will _never_ forget who I am.”

“Who’s that, then, Zuko of the Fire Nation?”

_Bastard_.

Even if he was dishonored, Zuko knew as well as Zhao that the deliberate omission of his title was just another way for Zhao to insult him.

Zhao lit a flame in his hand. “Ah – my mistake,” he corrected himself smugly. “You’re not of the Nation anymore, are you?”

Zuko could only watch as he held the fire close to Katara’s face. The left side of her face.

“So what are you now, I wonder?” Zhao mused, smirking maliciously. “An exile? A coward? A _failure?_ ”

“Let her _go!_ ” Zuko demanded. Katara was staring at the flame with naked terror in her eyes.

The look on Zhao’s face turned ugly. He dropped his hand away from Katara’s face, and Zuko felt the air return to his lungs.

“Your father would be ashamed of you,” Zhao spat. “But then – he always was.”

Zhao had seen his face, Sokka and Katara were incapacitated, and Aang was still stuck in the sanctuary. It was safe to say that things couldn’t get much worse.

Zuko had been about ready to throw a fireball at Zhao when the door to the inner sanctuary started glowing.

_Triple shit_.

…

Aang made it into the temple’s inner sanctuary just as the door slammed shut behind him. Man, that was close! It reminded him of that time the unagi had almost snapped its jaws shut around his ankle.

He understood what Sokka had meant now – _deadly is always cool, but cool isn’t always deadly_. Riding elephant koi was cool, but it wasn’t deadly. Riding the unagi was deadly _and_ cool. But breaking into a Fire Nation temple? That was _way_ more deadly than riding the unagi, and _way_ cooler, too!

He had to figure out how to talk to Avatar Roku, though, or this would all have been for nothing.

“The light hits the statue and I talk to Roku,” he muttered to himself. Well, there was a huge statue of Avatar Roku here, and a beam of red sunlight was shining on a jewel in the statue.

“So why isn't anything happening?” He asked aloud. In Senlin Village, he’d learnt that on the winter solstice, the line between the natural world and the Spirit World was completely blurred, and he could speak to the spirits. But he wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work.

He’d tried talking to Hei Bai, but the panda bear spirit hadn’t seemed to want to talk to him until he had shown him the acorn and told him about how the forest was going to grow back. But he didn’t know how to make the whole world grow back.

The world had been at war for a hundred years! Everything had changed, and he couldn’t make the world go back to the way it was a hundred years ago. How was he supposed to do that? The world didn’t work like that! There were _rules_ about time and that kind of stuff!

Aang forced himself to calm down and think about it. Maybe dealing with the Spirit World was like Zuko said, and he didn’t need to worry about the rules. Who cared about how it was _supposed_ to work? Maybe he could just… speak to the spirit of Avatar Roku?

“Hello?” He asked tentatively. “Roku? Are you there?”

He yelped and scrambled backwards as Roku’s statue turned red. Its eyes turned white, and smoke started filling the room! Aang tried to airbend the smoke away, but it was too thick and coming too fast. He tried to hide his face and manage his breathing, but the smoke suddenly dissipated.

“Huh?” He opened his eyes and peeked out. He was standing on a mountaintop surrounded by clouds. That was weird. Had Hei Bai come and messed about with him again?

When he turned back around, he came face to face with an old man in red robes. He knew who it was straight away.

“Avatar Roku,” he breathed a sigh of relief. “So I _can_ just talk to spirits!”

“And we can talk to you,” Roku smiled. “It's good to see you Aang. What took you so long?”

Aang frowned. “I only got your message last night,” he pointed out. “Appa got us here as fast as he could!”

Roku looked a bit confused at that. “I was talking about the last hundred years,” he explained.

That made Aang feel a bit embarrassed. “Uh. Well, even so. Never mind!”

Roku nodded. “Time grows short as the night grows long on solstice,” he agreed. “I have something very important to tell you, Aang. That is why, when you were in the Spirit World, I sent my dragon to find you.”

Aang remembered the dragon with a few mixed emotions. Dragons were awesome, but that had been a _super_ crazy experience. He’d have to talk to Zuko about that journey through the Spirit World – maybe he’d know what had been happening.

Or he could just ask Roku, right now. “Is it about that vision? The one of the comet?”

Roku explained that he had shared the vision of the comet with Aang to warn him. A hundred years ago, the comet had passed by the world and made the Fire Nation’s firebenders incredibly powerful. Fire Lord Sozin and his firebending army had harnessed its incredible power, and dealt a deadly first strike against the other nations.

That must have been what had happened at the Southern Air Temple, Aang realized numbly. He remembered seeing Monk Gyatso lying surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers… they must have attacked the Temple when the comet came. That must have been the only way they could have been powerful enough to take on Gyatso, who Aang had always known was the greatest airbender in the world.

“But that happened a hundred years ago,” he tried to figure it out. “What does the comet have to do with the War now?”

The Fire Nation had already destroyed his home, Aang reflected sadly. What could they possibly do that was worse than that?

“Sozin's Comet will return by the end of the summer,” Roku explained, and Aang watched in shock as the shadow of a man stepped forward into his vision. “And Fire Lord Ozai will use its power to finish the War, once and for all.”

The silhouetted figure blew fire into the sky with a shout, and Aang started backwards in surprise. He hadn’t known firebenders could do that!

“If he succeeds, even the Avatar won't be able to restore balance to the world,” Roku stated plainly. “Aang, you _must_ defeat the Fire Lord before the comet arrives.”

_Oh… monkeyfeathers_.

Aang wanted to sit down. He wanted to run. He wanted to hide and not come out until the comet had come and gone and the Fire Lord _hadn’t_ destroyed everything.

“But I haven’t even started learning waterbending,” he pointed out weakly. “Not to mention earth and fire…”

“Mastering the elements takes years of discipline and practice,” Roku agreed.

Aang hoped this was all a crazy mistake. Like that dream he’d had where Momo had been earthbending on the prison rig in a samurai costume. If the comet wasn’t coming so soon, he still had time to learn how to bend all the elements, right?

“If the world is to survive, you must do it by summer's end.”

_Welp_. There went that theory.

“What if I can't master all the elements in time?” He asked desperately. “What if I fail?”

“I know you can do it, Aang,” Roku looked at him with calm eyes. “For you have done it before.”

_That’s right_ , Aang remembered. _I’m the Avatar_.

He remembered what Zuko had said. He could do this, because there wasn’t any reason he _couldn’t_ do this.

“The solstice is ending,” Roku said abruptly. “We must go our separate ways, for now.”

Wait a minute – Aang still had so many questions! He couldn’t go yet!

“But I won't be able to come back to the temple!” Aang pointed out desperately. “What if I have questions? How will I talk to you?”

“I am a part of you,” Roku reassured him. Aang _wished_ he could be this calm in the face of all these disasters! “When you need to talk to me again, you will find a way.”

Roku showed him what was happening outside the inner sanctuary. A firebender was threatening Katara, and the other Fire Sages and some soldiers had surrounded Sokka and Shyu. Zuko burst into the room, but he was already outnumbered. He needed Aang’s help.

**I'M READY** , Aang said in a hundred voices.

…

As the door to the inner sanctum started glowing, the man Zuko had called _Zhao_ turned away. Katara felt herself slump, only held up by the chains around her body.

“Keep your eyes on the traitor!” Zhao ordered his soldiers. They nodded, and turned to face Zuko. They’d easily overpowered Katara – what were they going to do to him?

What was Zhao going to do to Aang?

_Spirits, please_ , Katara begged whatever beings might be listening. _He’s our last hope, don’t let him do it, don’t let him hurt Aang –_

“Ready,” Zhao instructed the other four Fire Sages with a twisted grin.

“No!” She’d do anything, please, _please_ –

“ _Aang!_ ”

“ _Fire!_ ” Zhao roared.

Katara screamed, and Sokka yelled, and whatever noise Zuko made was drowned out by the roar of the flames.

The flames parted, and a tall figure in red robes with glowing eyes stood in front of them.

“No!” Zhao took a step back.

“Avatar Roku…” Shyu murmured in awe.

The Fire Nation Avatar drew the fires together and sent them forward in a wave, searing the chains away from Katara before they could burn her. She stumbled forward in a daze, unsure what she was seeing.

_Is this a dream?_

Someone gripped her shoulders, and she looked up to see Shyu’s panicked face.

“Avatar Roku is going to destroy the temple!” He shouted. “We have to get out of here!”

Sokka was there too, quickly followed by Zuko. But Aang was still missing. “Not without Aang!”

Shyu cast her a long look, then turned to Zuko.

“I will let your uncle know,” he said. “Zhao will be watching, but he will be safe.”

Zuko nodded. Shyu turned on his heel and ran, just as Roku ruptured the floor and brought lava bursting forth.

Zuko tried to step forward, but Katara grabbed hold of his shirt. “What are you _doing?_ ”

Sokka wrapped his arm around her, and dragged her behind a column. She pulled Zuko, and the three of them crouched down. Katara wasn’t sure if she was crying or if anyone else was; it was too _loud_.

The noise stopped for a moment, but all she could hear was her heartbeat and her breathing in her ears.

“Look,” Zuko panted, before the arm around her shoulders left her.

“What?” She mumbled, looking up.

_Aang!_

He was kneeling in the middle of the room, looking tired and weary. Zuko had already reached him, and as Sokka joined him, they lifted him back to his feet.

“Thanks,” Aang mumbled drowsily. “Where’s Shyu?”

“He’s gone,” Katara told him.

“And we should be getting gone, too,” Sokka added hastily. “This place is gonna come crashing down any second now!”

Katara had never been so relieved to hear Appa’s roar. As they rushed to a gaping hole in the wall, she could see Momo flying with Appa – he must have gone and found him!

“On three?” Zuko muttered to Sokka.

Sokka paled, but nodded resolutely.

“On three, what?” Katara asked, but then she saw the two boys take a step back. “Oh, no,” she shook her head quickly. “Don’t you dare – we _just_ avoided getting burned alive –”

“You’re jumping too, Katara,” Sokka told her.

They must have been five stories up. “I am _not_ jumping!”

“Got a better idea?” Zuko jerked his head towards the hole in the floor. Katara blanched, and steeled herself before sprinting and taking a running jump out into the sky.

She hadn’t even begun to scream before she had landed in Appa’s wonderful, safe, protective saddle. Moments later, she had to scramble out the way as Zuko landed with Aang.

“Is he okay?” Katara asked immediately.

“He’s fine,” Zuko replied, before quickly tugging her back. Sokka landed in an ungainly heap a moment later. “That’s everyone.”

Katara barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief before Zuko was scrambling back over to sit on Appa’s neck. “What are you doing?”

“What do you think?” He snapped. “Getting us out of here!”

“Wait a minute!” Sokka pulled himself to his knees. “ _I’m_ the leader here, buddy – I’m picking out where we’re going –”

“You can pick where we’re going when we’re out in Earth Kingdom waters,” Zuko said, patting Appa’s horn with a distracted urgency. “Come _on_ , Appa, get us out of here!”

As Appa started flying, Katara turned her attention to Sokka and Aang. They were both sprawled in the saddle, but Sokka was the only one loudly complaining about how they were _never visiting the Fire Nation again, ever_. That was okay – that meant he didn’t have anything more serious to complain about, like injuries or burns.

Aang seemed a little sleepy, but he managed a smile when he saw Katara. “You see my buddy Roku?”

“I did.” She tried to keep the tremor out of her voice. Watching the Avatar Spirit bend _lava_ had been terrifying. “Kind of crazy, huh?”

Aang giggled weakly. “Told me I’ve gotta learn waterbending. _That’s_ crazy, huh?”

“Well, you _are_ the Avatar,” she reminded him. He seemed okay, just – well. Tired. But maybe this was a normal reaction to your body being taken over by the World Spirit.

“And earthbending, and firebending,” Aang continued. “Gotta save the world.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Katara agreed.

“Wanna go penguin sledding instead,” Aang mumbled, his eyes sliding shut. “ _Way_ easier…”

Aang fell into a deep sleep, and Katara figured that it would be best to let him rest. In fact, they could _all_ be getting some rest after that. First the prison break, and then her sleepless night in Senlin Village – she had only gotten a few hours’ nap yesterday! Her heartbeat was beginning to settle, and with everything that had just been happening, she could feel exhaustion creeping in.

“Zuko?” She managed. With dark spots on the edge of her vision, she could see his head turn to face her. There was a red blur over one of his eyes as she yawned.

“Katara?”

“’m gonna go sleep,” Katara tried to make her mouth say the words. “You gonna steer?”

“Sokka and I have got this,” she heard him say. “Get some rest, Katara.”

“Don’t crash,” she ordered him. “’f you crash –” she yawned – “Gonna be mad.”

“I won’t crash,” he promised her. His voice was rougher than usual. Must have been the yelling. “Sokka might, though.”

She wanted to laugh, but something was telling her she shouldn’t. Wasn’t Zuko the _bad_ guy? But she was – so _sleepy_ …

“Don’t let Sokka crash either,” she slurred. Her eyelids drooped closed, and she fell into a dreamless sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

Aang woke up with a real headache, but the rest of him was so comfortable that he didn’t really want to move and address the headache. He let out a sigh and snuggled back into his sleeping bag. He’d been having the _weirdest_ dream about panda bears and flying rocks on fire, and there was this guy in a super dumb hat that kind of looked like a fishtail.

 _Wait a minute_ …

Aang’s eyes snapped open and he shot bolt upright. “It wasn’t a dream!”

“Gah!” Sokka jerked backwards. “Give a guy a little warning next time!”

“Morning, Aang,” Zuko mumbled. He was blinking slowly and he looked a little tired, but he was awake, at least. “What’re you not dreaming?”

“Lot of answers to that question,” Sokka mused. “Like, _anything_ Aang hasn’t dreamed.”

“Fuck off, Sokka.”

“Okay, you can’t just wait until Katara’s asleep and then start _swearing_ at me, jerkbender.”

“Katara’s asleep?” Aang twisted round in Appa’s saddle until he could see her. She was curled up in a ball on Zuko’s other side.

“She hasn’t been sleeping much recently,” Zuko told him. “None of us have,” he added more firmly. “We need to take some time to rest.”

Aang could agree with that – he could see from the way Appa’s tail was waving to and fro that he was getting tired.

“Okay,” he nodded. “Where are we, Sokka?”

“We’re somewhere over the central Earth Kingdom,” Sokka reported back. “I’ve been looking for some place to land, but it’s all forests.”

Zuko frowned. “What’s wrong with forests?”

“Says the guy that’s never been kidnapped and taken to the Spirit World,” Sokka muttered.

Aang saw Zuko roll his eyes, but he leaned over the side of the saddle to look out with Sokka. “What about that spot there?” He asked, pointing at a small clearing near a stream.

“It’s got a lot of rocks,” Sokka said dubiously.

“It doesn’t have to be perfect,” Zuko reminded them. “Hopefully, we’re just going to be sleeping for most of it.”

Sokka rolled _his_ eyes, too. Aang wondered if it was something teenage boys did more of as they grew older and more mature. He gave it a go – but he was still a little tired and headachy, and it made the front of his skull hurt.

“We’ll set down over there,” Sokka gestured to a spot a little further away. It didn’t have as many rocks, which Aang supposed was a good thing, but it was a little further away from the stream. Oh, well. He was already half-asleep again anyway.

“Sounds good, Sokka,” he yawned. “Can you wake me up when it’s nap-time?”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Sokka complained, but he gave Appa a pat on the head and steered him down.

Appa landed with a bit of a bump, which made Aang feel a lot of sympathy for his big friend. Appa had been flying all over the Mo Ce Sea – there _and_ back! To make up for all the trouble he’d been causing Appa, Aang made sure he helped Zuko unstrap Appa’s saddle once they’d gotten everything out.

Katara had seemed really sleepy, so Zuko had had to carry her off Appa and put her down on a bedroll Aang had put out for her. She’d mumbled something about crashing as he’d put the blanket back over her, but he hadn’t been able to make it out.

Katara did look really pretty when she was asleep, he had to admit.

Sokka had already passed out and begun snoring when Aang and Zuko got back from removing Appa’s saddle.

“I guess we really needed this break,” Aang mumbled. He hadn’t realized everyone was so tired. Was this because they’d been so busy with Hei Bai and Roku?

He didn’t realize he’d asked the question out loud until Zuko reminded him that they’d also been involved in a prison break. Man, they’d had a _crazy_ couple of weeks since they left Omashu.

But now that he was up, Aang realized that he wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep. When he complained about this, Zuko gave him a small smile.

“You slept through the night,” he explained. “So did Katara.”

“What about you and Sokka?”

“We traded off steering at about three in the morning,” Zuko said. “I got a few hours’ sleep, but the sun woke me up,” he shrugged. “I’ll try again tonight.”

“Does the sun always wake you up?” Aang asked. “Is that, like, a firebending thing?”

“I’m not sure,” Zuko said thoughtfully. “I think it has to do with how connected you are to your inner flame. I never used to get up early, but since Uncle took over my training, and I could _feel_ my fire more clearly, it got easier to wake up at dawn. Now, my body just does it, no matter how little sleep I’ve got.”

Aang winced. “That sounds really annoying.”

“It can be,” Zuko acknowledged. “But so can you,” he added, giving Aang a small smirk.

Aang made a face at him. “Takes one to know one.”

Zuko chuckled. It sounded a bit like the pop a fire would make when it burned an especially big bit of wood. Aang liked it when Zuko seemed amused by his jokes – it was harder to make Zuko laugh than Katara or Sokka. It might have been because he was from the Fire Nation – but then again, although Aang hadn’t met him for long, his Uncle had seemed like the kind of guy to have a good sense of humor.

A thought struck him. “If I need to learn firebending, will I need to start getting up at dawn?”

“Why’re you making it sound like a bad thing?” Zuko raised his eyebrow.

“I don’t want to get up _early_ ,” Aang complained. “That just means you’re missing out on sleep!”

“You sound like Sokka.”

“You’re saying _that_ like it’s a bad thing,” Aang glanced over to the sleeping boy. “Do you guys – do you not like Sokka, or something?”

Zuko looked a bit confused. “What? No, I – I don’t _dislike_ him. I just don’t know him very well.”

“It just seems like you don’t really get on.”

“We haven’t known each other very long.”

Aang remembered that when the monks had found a boy who had turned out to be an airbender, nobody had really known what to say to them. In the end, Aang had gone up to talk to Samten and helped him get to know everyone at the temple, and it had all been okay. But it had been kind of awkward in the first few weeks.

“Okay,” he said. “But you don’t _not_ like him, right?”

“I don’t have a problem with Sokka, Aang,” Zuko told him. “But if you wanted to wake him up with that freezing air trick again, I _would_ find it very funny.”

Aang grinned. He would, too.

…

Unbeknownst to him, Sokka was spared the indignity of waking up with frozen goolies, because Aang and Zuko had decided to make the most of their peace and quiet, and try meditating. So instead of being jolted into consciousness by Aang’s airbending, Sokka woke up to the glorious smell of cooking.

“Something smells _good_ ,” he moaned, shuffling his sleeping bag in the direction of the aroma. “Did Hei Bai give us an apology gift of deliciousness to say sorry for kidnapping me?”

“Actually, it’s his apology to the rest of us for bringing you back.”

Zuko’s voice almost sounded amused, but Sokka knew there was no way that was possible. Zuko only ever sounded _grumpy_ or _angry_.

“Whatever,” he yawned, sitting up and stretching. “I’d be mad, but it smells too good.”

“Hope it tastes good,” Zuko said. He dipped a ladle into the pot and measured out a steaming bowl of noodles. Sokka’s mouth watered.

He was about to accept a delicious bowl of noodle soup from Zuko when he realized something. “Wait a sec. You’re cooking?”

“Yep.”

That was _weird_. Sokka wrinkled his nose. “You’re… a guy.”

“Two for two,” Zuko nodded seriously. “Very impressive.”

Sokka was about to say _fuck off_ , but he saw that Katara was awake and tucking into her own bowl of noodles. _Super unfair_. How come Zuko got to swear, and he didn’t?

“Why are you cooking?”

“Someone has to,” Zuko replied. “And it wasn’t going to be _Aang_.”

Aang looked a bit offended, but Sokka wasn’t about to disagree with that one. The kid burned _soup_.

“No, I mean – Katara does all the cooking.”

“I was asleep,” Katara interjected. “And what do you mean, I just _do_ all the cooking?”

Sokka had to hurry if he didn’t want worms and grubs in his rice tonight. “I just meant, uh – you’re the best cook here, so you do the cooking. That’s how it works, right?”

Zuko rolled his eyes. “Eat your soup, Sokka.”

Sokka eyed it dubiously. It might have smelt good, but Sokka knew that guys didn’t cook for a reason. And that reason was because they _couldn’t_ cook. Basic cause and effect, right?

“It’s actually good, Sokka,” Aang encouraged him. “It was vegetarian, but I told Zuko he could put meat in it for you.”

The thought that Aang had gone out of his way to remind Zuko that Sokka was a meat-eater was enough to bring tears to Sokka’s eyes.

“You’re the best, buddy,” he told Aang, before tentatively taking a spoonful of… _heaven_ into his mouth. Oh, _man_ , it had the spices, but it was also so _savory_ , and was that a hint of soy? Sokka moaned, and immediately set about scraping every last drop of noodle soup he could into his mouth.

“I take it back,” he eventually declared happily. “You’re the best, Zuko. Man, how’d you learn to cook like _that?_ ”

Zuko ducked his head a little, like he was embarrassed. “Um – yeah, Uncle wanted me to learn. The past few years, we’ve been – we’ve been travelling, so he taught me some stuff, and I learned some stuff.”

 _Oh, right!_ Sokka had almost forgotten with everything going on!

“Speaking of teaching and learning,” he turned to Aang. “We’re all here, we’ve had a rest, we’re eating – did you want to talk us through what Avatar Roku told you in that Fire Temple?”

Aang looked a little nervous. “Uh – are you sure you don’t want more food first?”

Well, Sokka wasn’t going to turn that down!

It was probably a good thing he’d had that second bowl, he reflected later. If he’d heard Aang talk about how Fire Lord Ozai was planning to use the power of a huge comet to bring the war to an end with an overwhelming attack on the other nations _before_ he’d eaten, he would probably have lost his appetite.

Well, maybe. That was some _really_ good noodle soup.

“And then Roku told me that when I needed to talk to me again, I’d find a way,” Aang finished. “So that’s a good thing, right?”

“Yeah,” Katara nodded, though she looked as uneasy as Sokka did. “That’s… that’s great, Aang.”

“Love a happy ending,” Sokka agreed faintly.

Aang smiled. “So what happened with you guys while I was in there?”

_Umm…_

“Well,” Sokka began. “We, uh, were doing pretty great, but then that Zhao guy turned up and tied us up on the pillars.”

“My fault,” Zuko said quietly. “They split up. He tricked me.”

Sokka would have made a big deal out of how the soldier guarding him had wrenched his shoulder in a rather _unpleasant_ fashion, but Zuko was looking down at his feet with a really serious expression. Poor guy probably felt bad enough about it already.

“Zhao got in?” Aang paled. “Oh, man – did he follow us? I know he followed us there, but did he follow us _here?_ ”

“No,” Sokka reassured him. Poor kid looked like he was about to airbend himself thirty feet into the air, and then another sixty feet into a panic. “No, Aang, we’re fine. He doesn’t know where we are.”

“But now the Fire Nation knows we were there!” Aang was biting his thumb. “Oh, man, they’re going to tell the Fire Lord, and then they’re going to just attack even sooner –”

“Zhao won’t tell the Fire Lord,” Zuko’s voice was sure.

“How do you know?” Sokka wanted to know. “The way he was going after Aang, it seems he wants him pretty dead.”

But the way Zhao had been going after _Zuko_ made it seem like he’d wanted _Zuko_ pretty dead, too. Some of the stuff he’d been saying…

“Do you _know_ Zhao?” He asked, eyes narrowing.

Zuko hesitated.

“Is that how you know he won’t go to the Fire Lord?” Katara was looking at Zuko too.

Zuko sighed, and looked at Aang. “I know Zhao,” he admitted. “Or, rather – we know each other. We’re… not close.”

Sokka had gotten that from the way Zhao had been calling Zuko a failure and a coward, thanks.

“If it was only the Avatar that had gotten away, Zhao would probably be calling in every favor he could,” Zuko continued. “He’ll be after you, Aang. But he can’t go searching for you like he could have if I wasn’t there.”

“What’s stopping him?” Sokka wanted to know. “And what’s it got to do with you?”

Zuko looked down at the dirt. “Zhao’s proud. He’s ambitious. He won’t want people to know that a banished kid got the better of him. It’ll make him look weak, and he can’t afford to look weak. So he can’t spread the word that we got away. Nobody’s even going to know we were there.”

Sokka replayed the sentences in his head a few times to make sure he got it right.

Katara seemed to get there first. “You’re _banished?_ ” She repeated. “You mean the Fire Nation didn’t _want_ you?”

Zuko winced, and, okay, that maybe seemed a little harsh even to Sokka.

“But that’s great!” Aang said hopefully. “If they can’t say we were there, then they can’t come looking for us, right? They can’t track us!”

Zuko was shaking his head before Aang had even finished his sentence.

“If we keep a low profile, we might be able to evade the Nation,” he said grimly. “But now that Zhao knows you’re alive, he’ll do anything to find you.”

Sokka looked at his bowl, and then back at the cooking pot.

 _Yep_ , he thought sadly to himself. _Definitely lost my appetite_.

…

Katara found herself streaming the water later that evening down by the brook. Waterbending always helped to clear her mind when she was confused – there was never any doubt for her when it came to waterbending. She was Katara, the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe. She might not be a very _good_ waterbender, but there was never any doubt that she _would_ be, some day. She’d become a master.

Whenever there were things she wasn’t sure about, she could be sure of her bending. For all that water was the element of change, with its push and pull, give and take… water always flowed to the sea. Rain would fall, the tides would ebb and flow – there was never any doubt about these.

There had never been any doubt in Katara’s mind that the Fire Nation, and _all_ firebenders, were evil. But that Fire Sage Shyu had been on their side. He’d said he was there to help the Avatar.

Katara didn’t _like_ it when she was made to doubt things.

Zuko had made her doubt herself. She’d been so _eager_ to learn from a bender who seemed to know what they were talking about that she’d completely ignored the warning signs. He’d fooled her into thinking he was just some boy from the Earth Kingdom, and then, just when she was starting to wrap her head around him being from the Fire Nation, it turned out he was _banished_.

Even his own family didn’t want him.

At the South Pole, if you were sent out onto the ice, it was a death sentence. Katara hadn’t ever seen it happen, and Gran-Gran had told her that nobody had been sent out in twenty years, but she still knew just how serious it was. It meant that the community couldn’t trust you and _didn’t_ trust you, and that they didn’t think they could count on you to change.

If Zuko had been banished, that meant his family didn’t trust him.

Was he a liar? That would have been Katara’s first guess, but Zuko hadn’t ever actually _lied_. He hadn’t told them all the truth, not even close, but he hadn’t told them he _wasn’t_ a firebender. And the way he stumbled over his words when he got awkward or embarrassed about things, she didn’t think he would be a very good liar anyway.

Besides, the way the rest of the Fire Nation was, it seemed that maybe it would be a _good_ thing if they didn’t trust you.

And _that_ was what was causing Katara the most cause for doubt.

The Fire Nation was _evil_. She _knew_ that, just like she knew that the Fire Nation had taken her mother away from her. So anyone who opposed the Fire Nation was by definition _not evil_. If Zuko had been banished, that meant…

Katara’s concentration broke, and she let out an angry breath as the water splashed down on her feet. _Slush_.

A whistling wind came her way, and suddenly Aang zoomed past, whipping leaves and grass up in his wake. She heard him call her name before he was suddenly there in front of her, hopping off his air scooter.

“Hey, Katara!” He waved as he landed lightly on his feet. “What’re you doing out here? Have you seen Momo? He went for a little fly-around earlier, but I can’t find him.”

“Hi, Aang,” she smiled at him. “I’m not really doing anything, much – I just came out here to think; it’s been a crazy few days. I haven’t seen Momo, sorry.”

Aang peered up at the trees as if Momo would magically drop down from them. “Well, I actually wanted to talk to you about that.”

“About Momo?” Katara asked, a bit confused. “Have you checked Sokka’s bags?”

Aang shifted his feet. “Well, I meant more the past few days. Zuko said you might be feeling kind of tired, so I was wondering if you needed to sleep, or anything?”

Katara felt a warm affection for Aang when she heard that. “Thanks, Aang,” she smiled. “That’s really nice of you to check up on me. I’m doing okay, though. How about you?”

“Oh, I’m great!” He bobbed his head and flashed her two thumbs up, and Katara had to stifle her giggles. “I mean, I was, like, _super_ tired last night after that whole Roku escape thing, but I feel _way_ better today. I did some meditating with Zuko, and it really helped!”

Katara still wasn’t sure about that. “Isn’t Zuko’s meditating to help his firebending?” She asked, trying to remember what he’d said in Senlin. “Doesn’t he just sit there quietly?”

“Yeah,” Aang admitted. “Don’t get me wrong, it can be kind of boring sometimes,” he continued, giving Katara a long-suffering look. “But we’ve been talking about bending, and it’s actually been super useful.”

“Really.” Katara tried not to sound _too_ sceptical, but she honestly wasn’t sure what a firebender could teach Aang. The Air Nomads had always been the most spiritual benders, and firebenders – well, the Fire Nation was the reason the world was so out of balance right now.

She remembered that Zuko was _banished_ , but she banished the thought, very aware of the _very_ clever pun as she did so.

“Useful how?” She asked, trying to stay interested in what Aang had to say.

“Well,” he began. “Remember that stuff he said about how airbenders can just bend, and how if I’m the Avatar, I can just do Avatar stuff like go to the Spirit World?”

Katara remembered Aang and Sokka getting taken by a monstrous forest spirit, and waiting up all night without even knowing if they’d return. “Sure.”

Aang gave her a big, toothy smile. “Well, I tried it in the sanctuary with Roku, and it worked! I just went in and tried to talk to Roku, and I could talk to him!”

Katara didn’t consider that a great triumph of bending philosophy, in all honesty, but Aang was looking so pleased about his progress that she didn’t have the heart to point that out. She remembered that Aang had been really worried about his Avatar duties.

“That’s really great, Aang,” she told him sincerely. “I know you were worried about that, so I’m really glad you figured it out. You’re going to be an amazing Avatar.”

Aang went a bit red and laughed a little. “Well, it was kind of Zuko who helped me figure it out. For a firebender, he actually knows quite a bit about the other elements.”

“Really.”

Aang nodded. “He says his Uncle taught him.”

“I think he said that to me once,” Katara remembered. Just after they’d met in Omashu, and they were sitting on Appa, talking about bending. She’d been so excited to talk about the North Pole.

“Well, he’s taught me a bit,” Aang said, giving her a quick look. “And I know he’s kind of grumpy, but he’s also kind of cool. And I just thought – maybe you could talk with him about waterbending?”

Katara sighed. “Maybe later, Aang. I’m actually a bit tired right now, so I might go for a nap. Let me know if you find Momo, okay?”

“Okay. Can I get you anything?”

Katara shook her head. “I’m fine, Aang. Thanks, though.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Samten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_name) is a Tibetan name that means ‘concentration’.


	17. Chapter 17

Sokka looked askance between Appa’s toes and the bushel of leaves he was holding as a makeshift brush. There were times when he didn’t care at all about being a non-bender, and there were times when he cared a great deal, like when he was stuck on Appa-cleaning duty just because he couldn’t drench people with freaky spirit water.

The most annoying part was that Katara never seemed to _mean_ to drench people with magic water. So you didn’t even have to be _good_ at bending to get out of Appa-cleaning duty!

Sokka grimaced. He would have said that cleaning was women’s work, but then he remembered that Dad had always been the one to key down the damage and reapply the resin to his canoe whenever someone – usually Bato, definitely never Sokka – had whacked it with, like, a boomerang or something. So taking care of the transport was clearly men’s work.

He sighed, and got to work on it. He would have gotten Zuko to help, but Aang had wanted him to sit in on waterbending practice. Super dumb, because Zuko wasn’t even a waterbender. But, then again, the guy _cooked_ , so he clearly just loved being involved with stuff that he shouldn’t be involved with. Like women’s work, or freaky spirit water.

Once he’d sorted Appa’s toes out – and gotten a huge lick for his troubles, thanks a _bunch_ ¸ Appa – Sokka had been about to get down to the real business of relaxing.

“You want some help with his stomach?”

Oh, so _now_ Zuko decided to show up, Sokka thought darkly. Now that Sokka had braved the gauntlet of Appa’s stinky toes!

“Nah,” he shook his head. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got this.”

Zuko glanced over to where Katara and Aang were practicing. “Your sister’s really talented.”

Sokka snorted. “Katara? Dude, are we watching the same thing?”

They both paused to watch as Katara showed off some move to Aang. Eh, she was making the water go back and forth, big deal. Sokka could do that by swishing a bowl around. Even Aang could do it, and he’d never even tried waterbending before!

“See?” Sokka shrugged and turned back to climb onto Appa. “She’s been doing that for ages – I remember her doing that when she was, like, _eight_. See, Aang’s doing it right now! Time for something new, right?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the basics,” Zuko disagreed, joining him on Appa and beginning to pick out bits of moss and gunk from his fur. “She’s had to teach herself all this stuff – that’s incredible. For an untrained bender, she’s really good.”

Well, when he put it like that… Sokka knew that not having anyone to teach her had always hurt his sister. Maybe it had hurt for all kinds of reasons, but he knew that not having his Dad around these past few years, he’d definitely been wondering how good a fighter he could have been if Dad had been around to teach him. If Katara had been feeling like that this whole time…

“How can you tell what’s good for an untrained waterbender?” He asked. “Especially if you’re a trained firebender.” A thought struck him, and he narrowed his eyes. “I _assume_ you’re trained.”

Zuko paused in his digging for an especially knotted mass of moss. _Man_ , Appa got this dirt and earth crap _everywhere_. “Yeah, no, I’m definitely trained. But I, uh, struggled for a long time. So I know what it’s like when you don’t know how to bend your element like you want to. And what it looks like.”

“What does it look like for firebenders?” Sokka dreaded the answer.

“Well, when I was seven, I, um. I sneezed and set a curtain on fire.”

Sokka almost laughed at the image. “With a sneeze?”

Zuko looked pretty embarrassed. Sokka would have felt a bit dumb if he’d done something like that, too. “Yeah. This other time, I got mad at my sister and accidentally blew a candle up. I got wax all over this painting.”

“Well, this one time Katara got mad at me, she split an iceberg and woke the Avatar up, so…” Sokka trailed off and shrugged meaningfully. “Strong competition, buddy.”

“An _iceberg?_ ” Zuko repeated, looking over to where Katara was raising up a weird blob of water from the river.

“She’s got a bit of a temper,” Sokka explained. Katara’s little water bubble burst and it fell back into the river. She looked a bit disappointed at that, but Sokka had seen her do that thing a hundred times, so it was a bit whatever by now.

Zuko was still looking over at the bending practice and he didn’t respond, so Sokka shrugged and got back to brushing out Appa’s fur. Then a few things happened at once. Zuko shouted, everything suddenly got a lot darker, like a cloud was blocking out the sun – and Sokka got shoved off Appa into the water by a freezing cold wave.

He broke the surface and blinked the water out of his eyes. “I swear to Tui, Katara, if you’ve brought some _water spirit_ out to mess with me, I’m gonna be _mad!_ ”

“It wasn’t Katara, Sokka,” Zuko said. He was in much the same position as Sokka, treading water and looking pissed off. “Aang figured out how to bend a wave our way.”

“That’s enough practicing for today,” Katara said, glancing at Aang, who still looked _way_ too happy to be bending dumb shit like that.

Fucking _magic water_.

“Couldn’t you have decided that _before_ he washed me out into the river?” Sokka squawked.

“Not just you, Sokka,” Zuko reminded him.

“Well, I’m still _mad_ at you for being a –”

“Not me, you moron,” Zuko shook his head. “Aang, you’ve just washed our supplies out into the river!”

Sokka twisted around, only to see a whole bunch of bags floating away with the current. Aw, _slush!_ That was their maps, their food, their lists, Sokka’s food, Zuko’s sword, Sokka’s seal jerky…

“Uh, sorry,” Aang gave him an anxious smile. “I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace all this stuff?”

Zuko muttered something about dao swords, and Sokka agreed. He hadn’t even been able to fight Zuko so they could figure out that Sokka was the better fighter!

“My life was hard enough when you were an airbender,” he managed, before sinking back down into the water. Maybe that water spirit was around and would take pity on him.

…

Okay, so Aang had accidentally practiced all their supplies down the river. It had been an accident! And he got what Zuko had told him very sternly, that dao swords were extremely difficult to come by, but, well, how was he supposed to know that he could make a wave that powerful before he started practicing? And he’d kept his money bag tucked inside his bedroll, and at least Aang hadn’t washed away their tents, so they still had enough money to buy food and supplies.

And if they were talking about food, which Sokka seemed to be really upset about, Aang hadn’t even meant that, either! And, okay, it kind of sucked that all their noodles and dumplings and vegetables and fruit was gone, but Sokka didn’t even care about that – all he cared about was the meat!

Aang didn’t even _eat_ meat, so he didn’t see what Sokka was making such a big deal out of. When he’d tried to talk to Katara about how he hadn’t meant to wash all the meat away, he just hadn’t expected to be able to do such a powerful wave on his first ever try, she’d just shook her head and walked on ahead to where Zuko was haggling over rice with a merchant.

So now everyone was mad at Aang for some stupid reason, and he hadn’t even _meant_ it!

It got even worse when Aang bought that bison whistle. Sokka seemed to think it was a piece of junk, and he even made it seem like Momo thought that, which was _rude_. Momo would never be so rude about something to do with sky bison. He and Appa were best friends! Katara seemed to think that buying a bison whistle for a copper piece proved that he was totally incapable of being trusted with money, and took the money off him. Zuko just shook his head and told Aang a story about how his Uncle had once made them pull into port in one of the colonies so he could buy three gold coins’ worth of jasmine tea.

Because it was technically Fire Nation land, and Zuko was banished from the Fire Nation, he’d had to stay on their ship for two days until a man named Jee had been able to bail Uncle out of jail and get him back to the ship. Because Zuko couldn’t go and look for Uncle, he’d had no idea what had happened, and Uncle had refused to ever tell him.

Aang had been about to ask Zuko some more about his banishment when a really slick guy with a really slick moustache asked if he was interested in some exotic curios!

Was Aang _ever!_

As they went to check out the curios store, Sokka sighed and muttered something about _fucking bison whistles_ , but he must have said it a bit too loudly, because Katara shot him a dirty look. That seemed to amuse Zuko, at least. But Aang wasn’t amused when the store manager asked if he was interested in selling Momo. Momo _wasn’t_ for sale.

Katara beckoned him over to something she’d found. “Look at this, Aang. It's a waterbending scroll!”

Wow! Aang hadn’t ever seen illustrations like those. It didn’t seem like Katara had either, because she was examining the scroll with interest. “Check out these crazy moves!”

Aang turned back to the store manager. Maybe he had a couple of these scrolls, or he knew where they could get some more! “Where did you get a waterbending scroll?”

The manager said something about getting it in the north for free, which was _great_. Aang didn’t know how much money they had left, but free was always good. Apparently _free_ meant something different to Sokka, because it appeared to help him realize that the store manager and his friends were pirates. No, wait – high-risk traders.

_Awesome!_

Aang had never met a pirate who traded at high risk before! He’d heard about them from Kuzon, who’d apparently had to ‘haggle’ for a dragon egg with them. Kuzon had said Fire Nation pirates haggled with knives and swords, but that didn’t seem like a valid form of currency in the Earth Kingdom. If it was, Aang felt even guiltier about washing Zuko’s dao swords away.

He cleared his throat and put on his best pirate voice. “What say ye to the price of… one copper piece?”

But after a while, it became clear to Aang that the pirate wasn’t very good at haggling. Zuko, though, seemed _really_ good at haggling, especially with black outfits. He’d managed to get the pirate called Oh down to one gold and eight silver coins for two pairs of black pants and a couple of tunics before Sokka came in and asked how much the boomerang was.

“Our higher-end boomerangs retail for eight gold pieces, and our novelty range retail for nine silver pieces,” Oh recited.

Sokka pulled a disbelieving face. “Seriously? Nine silver for this piece of crap?” He eyed the boomerang he was holding dubiously. “Do you guys sell bison whistles for, like, ten gold pieces, too?”

Oh looked extremely offended. “Well, if you want, you and your friend can have a special offer. The boomerang _and_ the clothing, for forty gold pieces.”

“Wait a minute –” Zuko began, but the pirate captain told him that if he and his friend were so insistent on insulting their wares, their store wouldn’t be accepting the added insult of haggling. By that point, Katara must have had had enough, because she asked if they could leave. Sokka and Zuko were squabbling as they left.

“Could have got them for a gold and five silver if you hadn’t pissed them off!” Zuko complained aggravatedly.

Katara might have been a bit shocked by Zuko’s language, but she didn’t tell him off like she did Sokka. It might have been because at that point, the pirates chased after them, and they had to run away. It turned out that it hadn’t been _Sokka_ that had… erm, annoyed the pirates – it had been Katara! That’s why the pirates had chased after them – she’d stolen their waterbending scroll!

“No wonder they were trying to hack us up! You stole their waterbending scroll!” Sokka pointed out rather unnecessarily.

“I prefer to think of it as high-risk trading,” Katara quipped.

Aang laughed. “Good one, Katara!” Even Zuko had smirked at it, so it must have been funny.

Sokka had been pretty annoyed that Katara had gotten them into trouble with pirates, but Katara didn’t see his point. If the pirates had stolen the scroll from a waterbender, they couldn’t really be mad if a waterbender stole it back. Plus, Katara pointed out that Aang needed to learn waterbending. Sokka had seemed ready to keep arguing, but Zuko stepped in at that point.

“Let it go, Sokka,” he said. “We got most of our supplies back, and you screwed up my haggling, so I couldn’t get a new shirt. We might as well get _something_ out of it.”

Sokka had gotten sort of huffy about that, but Katara had asked Aang if he wanted to try waterbending, so Aang had been okay leaving them to their little grump-off. He couldn’t wait to see what Katara was going to teach him next!

…

Katara had only been able to try a few moves on that stupid scroll before she’d gotten so _mad_ over it.

She’d _hated_ feeling that angry, but watching Aang bend _her_ element like it was as easy as airbending, as easy as _breathing_ … She had just felt the crushing weight of what felt like her whole Tribe on her spirit. She wasn’t naturally gifted, she finally conceded to herself. She didn’t know how to bend, and watching Aang pick it up so quickly had only brought that home to her.

 _Well_ , she decided, picking up the scroll and making her way down to the river. _If it’ll take time to learn, might as well start now_.

“Shh, Momo,” she whispered to the lemur. “Go back to sleep.” She shushed him again for good measure.

It was a clear night, and the bright moon was reflected in the water. Katara felt a little better once she saw that. She had always noticed that her waterbending was stronger at night – not always _better_ , she had to admit, but stronger. Maybe things earlier had been a bit of a blip, and Aang’s bending was stronger during the day? If she tried again now, she might be able to do better.

She started to push and pull the water, trying to build up a little wave. Aang and Zuko talked about feeling a connection to their element, but she couldn’t figure out what they _meant_ by that. She needed to be able to _see_ what she was trying to bend, and trying to build a visible _something_ to bend was a part of that. It made it easier for her to take hold of the water and start streaming it.

For Katara, waterbending was tricky because she didn’t always know how to take hold of the water. That’s why she had been so excited when she had managed to catch that fish when she and Sokka were out on the water – it was difficult enough for her to control that much water at once in the first place, but to be able to find a _fish?_ It might have been lucky, but when she had been able to keep the water together even when the fish was still swimming around in it, she’d been so excited.

And then Sokka had poked it with his spear, and then they’d had their argument, and then Katara had managed to break an iceberg and bring the Avatar back into the world. But she hadn’t really _meant_ to do that, not in the same way she’d meant to bring the water up.

Even when she had been trying to show Aang how to create a big, powerful wave, she hadn’t been sure how to make it happen. She’d kind of just… tried to reach out in her mind to as much water as she could and bring it all up together – but she hadn’t been able to keep it together, and it had all splashed back down.

Of course, then Aang had just come along and just _bent_ a wave so powerful it had washed all their supplies away.

She just didn’t know how to _feel_ the water, she thought to herself. Most of the time, she just saw the water she wanted to bend, and tried to _tell_ it to move. She had to use her arms a lot of the time to try and _show_ the water what she wanted it to do, but she wasn’t ever really that sure if it was working.

Well, tonight she was going to _make_ it work.

She checked the scroll’s illustrations again. So you had to bring the water up as you raised your arms, and then swirl it round with your hands, and if you pushed your hands out, you could push the water out as you went.

 _Let’s do this_ , she thought eagerly to herself, building her rippling wave again. She brought her hands up, bending the water up out of the river – but then she had to let it fall again, because she wouldn’t be able to swirl it round with her hands held up so high. She’d have to _really_ concentrate on the water if she wanted to bend it without lifting her hands up beyond her shoulders.

It was really hard to keep her focus, but Katara felt real satisfaction when she saw the water hovering with her. She was doing it!

“So swirl it,” she muttered to herself, carefully twisting her hands to bring the water closer. “And then just _push_ –”

She sighed as the water splashed down into the grass. She was pretty sure Sokka or Zuko would know a good swear word for this kind of situation.

But she had really been doing it! She felt a renewed surge of determination. She’d followed the scroll, she’d kept her hands steady – she had thought maybe her left elbow was a little too low, so that might have been why it hadn’t fully worked.

She tried again, keeping as much of her attention as she possibly could on the water, trying to make sure she was keeping her elbow up. This time, she could swirl the water round, but when she tried to push the water whip out with her hands, it didn’t go very far at all. It just kind of looked like she’d tossed it out of her cupped hands – it went a little way before dropping into the river in a series of splashes. But she’d done it!

She felt _elated_. She knew what she was doing! The stances were a little weird, and she had to _really_ concentrate to make the water follow the path of her hands, but she was _doing_ it. If she kept trying, she’d be able to show Aang and Sokka what she’d learnt!

It might have been because she hadn’t moved forward as she had pushed the water, she thought, and quickly tried again. She was getting more confident this time, as she swirled the water round, and took a step forward –

She squeaked as the stream of water burst, spattering her face and getting in her eye. She had to wipe it clear, but droplets dripped down her neck.

“ _Ugh_ ,” she repeated to herself a few times. “ _Shoot_.”

She’d been doing so well, and then the water had just decided to stop _working_ with her!

Maybe it was the scroll, she thought to herself, giving the parchment another glare. What was it Aang had said? _Shift your weight through the stances_. Maybe that was it – she might have been too quick in stepping forward. So if she just did it more _slowly_ …

Katara was so absorbed in mastering the water whip that she didn’t hear the men approaching her from behind until it was too late.


	18. Chapter 18

Zuko had woken up in the middle of the night to Momo dropping acorns on his face. It had not been a pleasant awakening.

“Piss off, Momo,” he groaned, trying to bat the lemur away and trying to get back to sleep. “I haven’t got any lychee nuts for you.”

Momo just chattered at him and scampered off. He scampered _over_ Zuko, and he had to let out a soft _oof_ as the lemur landed on his stomach. Well, there was no way he was getting back to sleep after that.

Now very much awake, Zuko let a small flame in his hand as he checked round their campsite. He hadn’t needed the flame to hear Sokka’s snoring, but Aang was curled up in a sleeping bag with a blanket on top.

Katara’s sleeping bag was empty, and Zuko felt a jolt of alarm before he saw that it was neatly unzipped; that probably meant she’d gotten up and wandered off. He saw that the waterbending scroll was gone from where Aang had rolled it up and stashed it in amongst their bags, and a few things clicked into place.

Katara must have snuck off to practice.

Zuko had been watching when Katara had been showing Aang her bending in the morning, only for him to quickly pick it up and surpass her, but his mind had been a long way away. Azula had _always_ been better than him, from the moment she was three years old and she clapped her hands to make sparks. It had been another two years after that before Zuko had bent fire, and that had been by _accident_.

He knew what Katara must have been feeling. Aang just looked so confident when he was bending, and that must have been difficult for her. It had been tough for him when he’d struggled, only to look over and see Azula running through advanced forms and _katas_ that even the masters struggled with.

When Katara had gotten frustrated at how Aang was _so naturally gifted_ , Zuko had seen himself at twelve years old, honestly _seething_ with jealousy at how Azula had been able to pick up Agni’s Sunrise Over Cherry Trees when he was still running into trouble with Swallow Alighting Upon A Branch. He’d spent the next week practicing; even when Uncle had tried to tempt him into taking a break with sticky buns, he had refused to stop.

Zuko had to admit, he approved of Katara’s work ethic.

He got to his feet and went down to the river. He knew he wasn’t in her good books, and he wasn’t keen on experiencing the way she’d yelled at Aang for himself, quite frankly, but he knew what it was like to be jealous of another younger, more talented bender, and Uncle Iroh had told him to look out for Katara. He had been drawing _a lot_ on what Uncle had said to him lately, with how Sokka and Katara had been giving him suspicious looks.

But when he reached the river, Katara wasn’t there. He searched for a bit, but it seemed like she really wasn’t there.

 _Where would she have gone?_ Zuko wondered. She had the scroll, so she was obviously going to be looking for some body of water. Was there a lake or a pond somewhere? She might have wanted to go somewhere with still water, it might have been easier to bend than the running river…

Zuko’s foot knocked into something, and he bent down to try and examine it a little more closely.

It was a brightly-colored stick of some sort – it had a grip and a cord on one end, and it curved round like it had been bent. But it wasn’t damaged, Zuko thought confusedly. He hefted it, and gave it a few swings. It wasn’t something you were supposed to hold and hit people with; the weight was all wrong. It actually reminded him of Sokka’s boomerang –

 _Our higher-end boomerangs retail for eight gold pieces, and our novelty range retail for nine silver pieces_.

“Shit,” Zuko hissed, sprinting back to the camp.

Uncle wasn’t going to believe him when he said that whilst guarding the Avatar was a relatively stress-free job, impromptu trip to the Fire Nation aside, taking care of two Water Tribe siblings who got themselves kidnapped by spirit monsters and pirates was an altogether more difficult matter.

Zuko quickly changed into dark clothes and grabbed his Blue Spirit mask from underneath his bedroll. Agni _damn it_ , he didn’t have his dao swords. That dumb boomerang would have to do. He debated waking Aang and Sokka up, but decided against it. Neither of them were exactly _subtle_ , and from what Uncle had told him about the pirates he’d encountered on his travels, they’d have no compunction about threatening Katara to get Sokka to cooperate. If they were able to find a buyer for Momo, he had no doubt that the Fire Nation would pay serious gold for the Avatar. The further Aang was from the pirates, the better.

Uncle would be proud of him, thinking things through.

He scribbled a quick note on a scrap of paper – _Gone to town, back later, Zuko­_ – and high-tailed it back into the Earth Kingdom village.

Despite how it was still only the early morning, the seafront pier was still doing good trade. A couple of the taverns were still well-lit, and Zuko could hear loud shouting and raucous laughter bursting through the windows. He was reminded vividly of one night involving Uncle, Midshipman Yang, and Ensign Takahashi’s box of fireflakes that he’d much rather forget.

The pirate ship was moored in a different location than he had last seen it, and he had to take a running leap off the jetty to scale the anchor and get onto the deck. He could hear shouts from below deck, but he seemed to be alone for the moment.

For the space of that moment, he had his doubts. He couldn’t even be sure that the pirates _had_ taken Katara, let alone that they had brought her here. And he wasn’t sure where Katara would be on the ship.

As quietly as he could, Zuko inched his way across the deck. It wasn’t a huge ship – not even the size of the _Wani_ – but it still felt like it took an age to get to the door to the boutique.

Light was coming from underneath the door, and Zuko could hear muffled voices. One of them sounded noticeably higher than the others – _Katara?_

“Go jump in the river!” The voice shouted.

 _Definitely Katara_.

Zuko hefted his weird boomerang in his hand, and kicked the door open, darting into the room – only to be met with the captain, Oh, and Katara tied up on a chair.

_Shit double shit triple shit –_

“ _What?_ ” The captain snarled. He looked as surprised to see him as Katara. “First the Avatar, now the Blue Spirit? Interesting company you keep, girl!”

 _Oh, Agni’s fucking balls_.

Thinking things through could _suck it_ , Zuko thought bitterly to himself as he threw himself into the fray.

…

Katara had struggled, and she had tried to remember what Suki had taught her. She used her elbows to try and hit one pirate in the side of the head, and she used her knee to try and hit another in the groin. Suki had said that it was better to stamp than to swing your foot at someone, so she tried to _stomp_ at the knee of the one who called himself Oh. But they were bigger than her, and she quickly found herself hustled onto the pirate ship, where the captain was watching her with a triumphant sneer.

“Well, now, girlie,” he gloated. “You went to all that effort to take that scroll from us, and you didn’t even bother _using_ it?”

Katara’s cheeks burned with humiliation. The pirates had caught her unaware, but when she’d realized what was happening, she’d tried to hold them off with a water wave. But it hadn’t worked; she’d barely been able to get the water roiling in her panic before they had grabbed her arms. Without the use of her arms, her bending was hopeless, and she’d had to try and shake them off with what little she’d learnt on Kyoshi.

“That’s alright, then,” the captain continued, accepting the scroll as one of the other pirates handed it to him. “We’ll accept it back in unused condition. We’d offer you a refund, but,” he smirked. “You didn’t pay us for the merchandise, so there’s nothing to refund.”

“That’s a waterbending scroll,” she insisted, struggling against the hands gripping her arms. “That’s not your _merchandise_ , that’s my culture! You can’t take that away!”

“That’s our profit margins you’re taking away from us, girlie,” the captain retorted, gesturing the door. “Get her inside, Oh.”

Katara felt a sick chill at that. She was alone, in the middle of the night, without Sokka, Aang, or Zuko. She couldn’t bend, she couldn’t fight, what were they going to _do_ –

“You need to let me go,” she managed, trying to sound braver than she felt. “When Sokka finds out I’m missing, he and Aang are going to come after me.”

 _And Zuko, too_ , she hoped, but she didn’t feel too sure about it.

“Bring your friends along,” the captain replied dismissively. “I hope they’ve gotten better at haggling in the past few hours.”

“What?”

“Two hundred gold pieces for the scroll,” the captain reminded her, a triumphant glitter in his eye. “We’ll make it _five_ hundred for you, girl.”

“You can’t do that!” She bit back furiously. “You can’t just – that’s _wrong!_ ”

“So’s stealing,” Oh pointed out as he bound thick ropes around her hands.

“Aang’s the _Avatar_ ,” Katara spat. “We needed that scroll so he can learn waterbending – and if he’s the Avatar, and he finds out you’re trading _people_ , he’s going to stop you!”

Even as she finished speaking, she realized just what she’d given away. Oh jerked the ropes around her torso _tight_ in his surprise.

“The Avatar?” The captain repeated slowly. “The _Avatar_ , you say?”

“No!” She denied it hastily, but it was no use.

“Yeah, you did,” Oh pointed out. “Aang’s the Avatar. That’s what you said.”

“I was lying,” she tried desperately, but the captain snapped his fingers.

“Go search the woods for the kids,” he commanded. Half the crew scattered, and Katara was left with Oh and the captain. “And get that bastard lemur, too!”

As the captain turned back to Katara, he looked furious, and for the first time, Katara felt fear, genuine fear for herself.

“We were just going to ransom you back to your friends, girl,” he told her. “Your arrowhead friend can’t haggle to save his life, but that idiot with his boomerang and your scar-face friend might have tried to save _yours_.”

He leaned in close, and Katara had to jerk her neck away to avoid his rancid breath. His yellow teeth widened in a bared grin. “But if your friend’s the _Avatar_ , I think we’ll find another buyer. Someone in the Fire Nation, perhaps?”

“Go jump in the river!” She shouted. “If you _touch him_ –”

Her words were cut off by the crashing sound of a door, and everyone turned reflexively towards the entrance.

A figure in dark clothes stood in the doorway. A grinning blue mask hid their face, but Katara thought it was a man – broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and the way they stood…

She suddenly realized who it was.

The pirate captain seemed to realize it at about the same time. “First the Avatar, now the Blue Spirit? Interesting company you keep, girl!”

The masked man leapt forward, but Oh was quick to react. He threw something down onto the floor, and the room was immediately filled with smoke. Katara heard grunts and shouting, and the sound of something painful hitting flesh. She had to shut her eyes to stop them burning in the smoke, but she couldn’t see what was going on…

Katara shrieked as a hand landed on her shoulder and she heard a _snick_ of something metal being drawn, and she twisted away. “Don’t!”

But just as she braced herself for the end, the ropes around her body fell loose. She cracked open her eyes, and she saw the Blue Spirit standing in front of her with a small knife. He pointed at her tied hands, then held the knife up.

She hesitated, trying to look around the room. Oh was spread out on the ground with a bruise on his forehead, and the pirate captain was knocked out and lying across a table with a smear of blood on his mouth.

The Blue Spirit pointed at her hands more sharply this time, and she took the hint. He quickly sliced through the knots and freed her hands, and she got to her feet a little unsteadily.

“Thank you,” she gasped once she’d caught her breath. “I thought they were going to –”

The masked man shook his head and gestured towards the door. Katara got the message – they needed to leave, _now_.

“My friends are in the forest,” she tried to tell him. “They’re in danger! We have to go and warn them!”

The masked man pointed at her.

“What?” She asked weakly. “You’re not going to help?”

The Blue Spirit apparently didn’t speak, because he just shook his head. Well, she wasn’t going to waste all day trying to figure him out! She had to warn the others!

…

Sokka and Aang had just found Zuko’s note, and Sokka had been a bit offended that Zuko would go shopping without him, _especially_ after the song and dance he’d made about haggling. He was distracted from plotting his revenge on the grumpy jerk, however, when Katara came running back into camp.

“Hey, Katara!” Aang had jumped up, happy to see her. “Did you go shopping with Zuko? I know he was looking for some dao swords yesterday, but I think we might have to avoid the pirates now that –”

“The pirates are coming,” Katara gasped out.

Sokka’s stomach dropped. “What do you mean, they’re coming?”

“They came after me earlier,” she explained, still trying to catch her breath. “They kidnapped me, but the Blue Spirit came, but I told them Aang was the Avatar, and now they’re on their way here!”

There was honestly more in that sentence for Sokka to unpack than he could handle at this point in time. The day was still young, and he hadn’t even had breakfast yet. “What do you mean¸ they’re on their way?”

“They’re trying to capture Aang!” Katara yelled. “We need to leave before they sell him off to the Fire Lord!”

“The Blue Spirit came?” Sokka asked, still hung up on that part of the story. “Weren’t they at the prison rig?”

“He saved me from the pirates,” Katara explained, already trying to clear up her stuff. “Aang, I _promise_ , I’ll explain it all when we’re somewhere safe, but for now, can we just _go?_ ”

Sokka spluttered at the complete and utter chaos unfolding around him. “So if Zuko wasn’t out shopping with you, where _is_ he?”

“Good question, kid,” one of the pirates said, stepping out from the trees, because _of course_ Sokka’s morning wasn’t going to turn out all nice and relaxing. “But we can go give him a nice new scar after we deal with _you_.”

He pointed his sword at Katara, and Sokka stepped forward and drew his boomerang. _Nobody_ threatened his baby sister!

“Captain told us you got lucky when your boyfriend showed up, girl,” he snarled. “Let’s see if your Avatar’s got the same kind of friends.”

One of the pirates lobbed something into the air, and suddenly the air was filled with smoke. Sokka couldn’t see five steps in front of his face, and he had to move quickly whenever a pirate-shaped person came too close.

“Aang, are you there?” He yelled. If Aang got caught, they were all screwed. He had to get away!

“I'm over here!” He heard the monk’s voice from somewhere to his left. “Follow my voice!”

“Where?” He dodged a punch and threw one back. He thought that might have hit someone in the shoulder. It definitely _felt_ like a shoulder. “I can't find you!”

“I’m right here!”

Sokka paused at the implicit command in Aang’s voice. From the sudden lull in the fighting, so did everyone else.

“Um,” Aang’s voice sounded a lot less commanding now. “Never mind! I’ll find you!”

Sokka rolled his eyes and dropped to his knees. If he stood less, he stood less chance of being punched, right?

As he crawled out of the dust and the smoke, Katara and Aang helped him to his feet.

“Where’s Appa?” He hissed. “We’ve got to get out of here before they realize we’re not in there with them!”

Katara looked around with a panicked expression, but Aang’s face suddenly lit up. He held up that _stupid_ bison whistle. Sokka wished he’d never set eyes on that Koh-damned thing. “Follow me, guys!”

As Aang bent himself onto his air scooter, Sokka and Katara exchanged a glance before setting off after him. As they reached the river, Appa swooped down towards them.

“Appa!” Sokka cheered. “Oh, _buddy_ , am I ever glad to see you!”

Aang turned to smile at them. “I guess that bison whistle works after all, huh, Sokka?”

“I _told_ you it was a bargain!” Sokka patted Appa’s side as Aang hopped up into the driver’s seat. “As soon as I saw it, I _knew_ it was something we should _gyarh!_ ”

He rubbed his arm, and turned to glare at the pirate that had been chasing them. His boomerangs may not have been Southern Water Tribe, but they still hurt!

“Stay right where you are, Avatar,” the pirate warned. “Or your buddy boy with the ponytail gets –”

The rest of his words were cut off as Katara made some weird swirly movement, and a whole bunch of water smacked the dude in his face.

Sokka turned to his sister, who was looking as surprised as he did.

“It worked,” she managed. She was looking at her elbow like it held a lifetime’s supply of seal jerky.

“You did the water whip!” Aang cheered.

Katara grinned up at him. Sokka’s sister looked delighted with this new progress. “I couldn't have done it without your help!”

This was all very touching, but whilst the two benders were celebrating Katara’s triumph, it fell to Sokka, as usual, to get them out of there.

“Would you two quit congratulating each other?” He called, scrambling up onto Appa. “We’ve got to find Zuko and get out of here!”

“Oh, right.” Aang laughed nervously. “Come on, Appa – yip yip!”

Appa set off just as the rest of the pirates spilled out of the forest onto the river banks, and Sokka took great pleasure in treating them to one of the rudest hand gestures that the Southern Tribe had to offer. Katara might not like him _shouting_ cuss words in front of Aang, but he could still _shape_ them.

“There he is!” Aang pointed out a figure running up from the village. “Hey, Zuko!”

Zuko looked unhurt as he changed his course towards them, Sokka noted with some relief. He was still a grumpy jerkbender, but at least he wasn’t being attacked by pirates. The all-black outfit was new, though.

“What happened to you guys?” He asked as soon as he was in Appa’s saddle. “I heard you were in danger, and pirates were after you – I went to check out the pirate ship, and now it’s been sunk! What _happened?_ ”

“The Blue Spirit sunk a pirate ship?” Aang asked, his eyes as wide as saucers. “That’s _so cool!_ ”

Sokka didn’t want to admit it, but that was extremely cool.

“We’re all okay,” Katara reassured Zuko. “The pirates came after me and got me onto their ship, but the Blue Spirit broke me out. I got back in time to warn Aang and Sokka.”

“They nearly got the jump on us,” Sokka acknowledged. “But we managed to get away. That bison whistle sure came in handy.”

“He wouldn’t have had to get involved if I didn’t get myself caught,” Katara said shamefacedly. “Aang, I still owe you an apology. You were just so good at waterbending without really trying. I got so competitive that I put us all in danger. I'm sorry.”

Sokka shared a confused look with Zuko. “Katara, you don’t have to feel bad about –”

“That's okay, Katara,” Aang said, cutting Sokka off. He gave her a big smile.

“Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway?” Katara gave a scoff.

Zuko held something up in his hand. “Is that really how you feel?”

“The waterbending scroll!” Katara gasped, snatching at it. “I thought I’d lost it!”

“How’d you find that?” Sokka asked.

“The pirates were trying to get all their stuff onto the pier before it sank,” Zuko explained. “And I managed to pick up a couple of things.”

Sokka remembered how he’d been haggling yesterday – guess he’d gotten a black outfit after all, then. Zuko also reached into his tunic and brought out a weirdly-shaped stick, which he handed to Sokka.

“I think this is one of the novelty ones,” he said a bit apologetically. “But it’s still worth nine silver pieces.”

Sokka looked at it for a moment. “Is this a boomerang?”

“They said so,” Zuko shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s any good.”

Sokka was oddly touched, all the same.

“Did you get anything for me?” Aang asked excitedly.

“Uh…” Zuko exchanged a glance with Sokka. Clearly, he hadn’t thought this through.

Yet again, it was up to Sokka to save the day. He rummaged in his pockets until he found what he was looking for. “Here you go, Aang.”

He looked a bit confused. “A copper piece?”

Sokka smirked, and held up another coin. He put his best pirate voice on. “Okay… two copper pieces?”


	19. Chapter 19

Aang had been watching Sokka throw his new boomerang around for a while without any real success. Over the past few days, he’d apparently tried throwing it quite a few different ways, but Aang couldn’t see how any of them had made a different. But when he’d pointed this out to Sokka, he’d just shook his head.

“It’s really different to my Dad’s old boomerang,” Sokka explained. “The axis is completely different. I’m just trying to figure out _where_ the axis is, and then we’ll be great.”

Aang thought it was a bit of a faff, but he had an idea for how he could make things a bit more interesting. “Can I have a go?”

Sokka looked a bit dubious, but he handed over his novelty boomerang anyway. “Knock yourself out.” He frowned. “Or, rather, don’t.”

“I could try and knock Zuko out,” Aang offered. “Remember when you did that on, like, his second day here?”

“The good old days,” Sokka agreed, but at least he didn’t sound like he meant it. That made Aang feel a bit more hopeful that he was getting along with Zuko a bit better.

Aang hefted the boomerang experimentally. “You know, if I just hold onto the edge like this, I should be able to –” he tossed it up in the air and shot a gust of air to speed it on its way. He grinned as the boomerang soared through the air and came back in a nice arc. “See?”

Sokka looked a bit put out as he looked between Aang and the boomerang he was holding in his hand. “You know I can’t airbend, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Aang rubbed his head. “But I wasn’t really thinking about that. I just wanted to see if I could do it, you know?”

Sokka sat down and patted the ground next to him. “Okay, buddy. Time for us to have a talk.”

Aang sat down and wondered whether this was another one of those _Manly_ things Sokka kept talking about.

“You know how you and Katara were waterbending the other day?” Sokka started. “And you picked it up really quickly?”

Aang nodded. “Yeah, she’s a really great teacher.”

“She is,” Sokka agreed. Aang must have looked surprised, because the Tribe boy cocked his head at him. “What, you thought I didn’t think that?”

“No, it’s not that,” Aang hastened to say. “You just don’t really say nice things about her.” Sokka looked a bit insulted at that, so he kept talking. “Not that you say bad things about her! You guys just… you really care about each other, but you don’t always say you care,” he finished lamely.

“Of course I care,” Sokka said. “She’s my sister, of course I care about her. And that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I think you really hurt her feelings when you kept showing off how good you are at waterbending.”

“What?” Aang hadn’t been doing that at all! “I wasn’t showing off! I was just seeing if I could waterbend like she’d been waterbending! It’s not like I was trying to make her feel bad!”

“But that’s my _point_ , Aang,” Sokka held up a hand. “It’s like my boomerang, you know? You weren’t really thinking about how I’m not an airbender, you just wanted to see if you could do it, right?”

“But Katara’s a waterbender,” Aang pointed out. “That’s not the same thing.”

He was getting a bit confused. What was Sokka talking about? He wasn’t going to be trying to show off how good he was with a boomerang to Katara. She didn’t seem to care when Sokka threw it around, except when he did it near the cooking pot.

“Aang, it’s not about whether I’m an airbender or whether Katara’s a waterbender,” Sokka said a bit impatiently. “It’s about how you don’t seem to notice when you make people feel sad, or down, or whatever.”

What? That was totally unfair! Aang might have been the Avatar, but he couldn’t read minds. How was he supposed to know when other people felt sad, or down, or whatever?

“Did Katara tell you she was feeling sad?” He asked.

“She didn’t have to, buddy,” Sokka answered. “She really cares about being a waterbender, you know?”

“Yeah.” Aang knew that, at least. “She said it took her months to figure out that first move she showed me.”

“And then you pretty much did it on your first try.”

Aang didn’t like the way that made him sound. It made him sound like he didn’t appreciate what Katara had shown him. “Because I had a good teacher!”

“Yeah, Aang, you had a really good teacher, okay?” Sokka shook his head. “And then she showed you a few more moves that she’s worked really hard on, and when you guys tried that water whip move, you basically turned around and told her she didn’t know what she was doing.”

“But that’s not what it was like!” Aang jumped to his feet as he tried to explain. He wanted to tell Sokka that he was just trying to help Katara understand. “I was just telling her what the monks told me, and they always said that the key to bending is –”

“Aang, buddy,” Sokka stood up with him and put his hands on his shoulders. “The monks were teaching you airbending, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Katara’s not an airbender,” Sokka told him, but Aang didn’t think he needed reminding of that. “She’s a waterbender. I know you and Zuko have your, like, study sessions where you sit down and talk, and that’s fine for you guys. But Katara wants to learn waterbending, not firebending or airbending. Don’t make her into something she’s not.”

Aang knew all about being made into something he wasn’t. Back at the Southern Air Temple, he’d sometimes thought that Monk Gyatso was the only person who _wasn’t_ trying to make him into someone he wasn’t. He didn’t want to be like Monk Tashi, trying to tell Katara what she should be doing all the time and taking all the fun out of bending for her.

“Okay,” Aang said. “I’ll try not to make her into something she’s not.”

Sokka clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks, buddy.”

“But I still don’t get what I did _wrong_ ,” Aang admitted quietly. “I just wanted to help her be a better bender.”

“That’s not a bad thing, Aang.” Sokka gave him a more comforting smile. “We all want her to become a waterbending master. Just… there’s a lot of ways to help someone with their bending, you know?”

Aang thought about how Monk Gyatso had helped him improve his aim by bending fruit pies onto the other monks’ heads.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll try and see if I can help Katara in a different way.”

“Awesome,” Sokka stepped back and handed him back the boomerang. “You wanna see if you can hit that tree over there?”

It took Aang a few tries, but by the time dinner was ready, he was even able to hit the tree when he threw the boomerang with his _left_ hand.

…

Katara dropped the water she was bending when she saw Zuko approaching.

That made him pause. “Sorry – I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“You didn’t startle me.”

Katara didn’t want to admit that she was _still_ having trouble with the water whip. She’d done it _perfectly_ when that pirate had been about to attack them, but she just couldn’t figure out _how_ she’d done it. After how Aang had figured it out so easily, she felt vulnerable and exposed when she tried bending in front of people now. She didn’t _like_ feeling embarrassed, but it was hard not to when they could all see that she wasn’t very good.

“Were you, uh,” Zuko pointed to the scroll she had carefully put down on the ground. “Were you practising?”

She sighed. “Yeah,” she admitting unwillingly. “Still having trouble with it.”

She wanted Zuko to leave so she could get back to it, but apparently he didn’t get the message. Instead, he came a bit closer.

“Do you remember, uh, when we left Omashu? And we talked about bending?”

Katara nodded, but she would honestly have preferred to forget. Zuko had offered to teach her, but after how quickly Aang had picked up waterbending, she didn’t want another witness to how she was struggling.

“Well – you remember what I said? About when I was younger?”

“Sure.” She folded her arms. “You said you really struggled with your bending until your Uncle started training you. And then you offered to train me.”

_And I said yes_ , she thought to herself. But then Zuko turned out to be a firebender, and she didn’t want him to train her.

“Right.” Zuko looked a bit nervous. “But I meant – my sister was always better than me. And it really sucked. Because she was where I wanted to be, and I didn’t know how to get there.”

“And now you’ve got there.” Katara turned away. “Look, if you’re just going to tell me there’s a magic way to get there, like some _key to bending_ –”

“I think you work really hard,” Zuko interrupted. “You – you really worked hard to learn those moves, and just because Aang can do them and he’s younger than you, that doesn’t mean you’re less of a bender because of it. I used to think that way with my sister, but – it’s not like that,” he finished awkwardly and swallowed. “You taught yourself how to bend, and that’s really impressive. Even if Aang doesn’t get it.”

Zuko seemed to be waiting for her to say something, but Katara didn’t know what to say.

Every time someone from her tribe had talked to her about her waterbending, they had always talked about how much it would help once she became a master. How much easier it would make life, once she could bend packed snow walls around their village and stir the food and melt the ice. But they’d never asked her whether she was tired after staying up half the night to try and bend with a little more power, to get a little bit more precise when she was streaming the water, to push and pull the half-frozen water, no matter how difficult it was when it was cold.

None of them had seemed to understand how hard she had worked just to be able to bend _slush_.

Zuko was still standing there, but he looked a bit more awkward now. “So… yeah. I just wanted to say I think you’re really impressive. And a really good teacher, too. But I think Momo was poking around Sokka’s bags earlier, so, uh – I’ll go and check that out.”

He began to walk back into the forest when Katara found her voice.

“Wait.”

As Zuko turned back to her, she bent down to pick up the scroll and hold it out to him. He took it carefully and curled his long fingers around the parchment.

“I’m trying to do this one,” she pointed out the water whip. “But it’s harder than I thought it would be.”

His golden eyes studied the illustrations carefully. “Can you show me?”

She tamped down her pride, and moved back to the riverside. She felt a bit silly as she was pulling the water back and forth and building up the ripples, but Zuko didn’t say anything about it. He just stood there and watched intently.

She managed to swirl the water round again, but grimaced as her water whip became more of a water wilt. She just couldn’t get any power behind it. “It keeps doing that, like it just – loses its power.”

“You looked really good when you were doing it, though,” Zuko said, glancing back to the scroll. “I, uh – I mean, I don’t know much about waterbending forms, but it looked like what’s on the scroll.”

Katara nodded. “I had to keep pausing and checking my stance against the illustrations to make sure.”

Zuko chewed on his lip. “My, um. My Uncle showed me this firebending set called Leaping Dolphin Fish, one time.”

Katara wasn’t sure what the Fire Nation was doing, naming firebending sets after ocean creatures. “Is this after he’d taken over your training?”

Zuko nodded. “Yeah. And I really struggled with it. I knew the stances off by heart. But he said my movement between the stances was too rigid. I was just focusing on getting to the next stance as quickly as possible.”

Katara moved to stand next to him, and he held the scroll out so she could study it. “I don’t know how to get to that final form,” she admitted, pointing out the stance that mirrored the _push_. “So I just tried to move into it from the last one as quickly as possible. I kind of push myself into it and try and make the water follow through.”

Zuko appeared thoughtful. “Waterbending’s the element of change, right?”

“Right,” Katara nodded. “It’s about give and take, push and pull. Waterbending’s got to be fluid.”

“Could you… try and be more fluid when you move?” Zuko put the scroll down on the floor. “I used to move in Leaping Dolphin Fish from my shoulders and my torso. But it helped when I moved from my hinge joints.”

“Like your elbows?” Katara asked, remembering how she’d seemed to do better when she had used her elbow.

Zuko nodded. “Right.”

“So if I keep my shoulders loose, but move my elbows,” she thought out loud, “And then let my hands follow the course of my arms as they straighten out…”

It took her a few tries, but as Katara focused more on how she moved from stance to stance, and became more relaxed as she tried to be more fluid, she managed to snap a water whip. When she tried it on Zuko, he hadn’t even been mad for very long before he was smiling along with her.

…

Much to Sokka’s relief, Katara was humming an old Water Tribe melody when she served up dinner. He’d already had to have one talk with Aang about how she might have been feeling – he didn’t fancy having to have one with her. Two conversations about feelings in one day was pushing it.

“You’re in a good mood,” he observed, tucking into his fish, kale and rice.

“I had a good day,” she gave him a bright grin. “Figured I’d celebrate.”

She handed him a kale cookie, and Sokka’s eyes widened. “That good a day, huh?”

“Mm-hm,” she nodded. “Me and Zuko made some really good progress with my water whip.”

“You and Zuko?” Sokka repeated. “Zuko was helping you waterbend?”

“You don’t have to sound so surprised,” Zuko grumbled.

“Zuko’s actually pretty good with bending, Sokka.” Aang chimed in. “Remember? You mentioned earlier –”

“Yeah, I remember, Aang,” Sokka interrupted hastily.

He didn’t want Katara to hear that he’d been talking about her. Either she’d get annoyed and tell him that she didn’t need him to look out for her, or she’d get embarrassed and thank him for looking out for her. He didn’t know which one would be worse.

“So how’d the jerkbender help, Katara? Did you see him firebending and realize that waterbending’s infinitely superior?”

“Didn’t you say it was just magic water?” Katara asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sokka was _offended_. “I’d never talk about your bending like that! It’s an ancient art unique to our culture!”

“I’ll remember you said that,” she teased, handing him another cookie. “You can’t get mad at me the next time I hit you with my magic water.”

“The next time?” Sokka gave Zuko a panicked look. “You mean you taught her how to do that on _purpose?_ ”

Zuko shook his head and looked approvingly at Katara. “Katara knew what she was doing.” He shrugged. “I just helped her put it together.”

“Literally,” Katara agreed with a smile. “Turns out waterbending’s a lot more fluid than firebending. You’ve got to be able to shift through the stances, not just _to_ the stances.” She turned her smile on Aang next. “Just like you were saying, about your weight.”

Sokka was glad to see that his little sister seemed to have gotten over whatever she’d been feeling that had made her yell at Aang. The little guy acted like a kicked polar bear dog puppy when she seemed mad at him.

“That’s really cool that you’ve got that water whip thing sorted, Katara,” Aang said. “Do we even need to go to the North Pole? We’re doing great without a master!”

Zuko was already shaking his head before Aang had even finished speaking. “We’ve had a few close calls, Aang,” he said. “We’ll be a lot safer at the North Pole than in the Earth Kingdom.”

“Right,” Sokka agreed. He’d been just about to say that. “We’ve had to deal with crazy spirits, the Fire Nation, and now pirates, Aang. We aren’t getting any of those at the North Pole.”

“Well,”Aang chewed on an apple with a thoughtful expression. “Bumi said the Dark Water Spirit is a friend of the Avatar, so we might see them around.”

“Bumi said you’d see the Dark Water Spirit at the North Pole?” Zuko asked with a dubious frown.

“Well, not necessarily at the North Pole,” Aang conceded. “He said you’d know something about it, though.”

Katara and Aang both looked at Zuko inquisitively, and he looked a bit uncomfortable. “I mean, I don’t know much about spirits,” he started. “Like I said, Aang – my Uncle knows more about that stuff than I do.”

Aang looked a bit disappointed. “Do you think we’ll see them, though?”

Sokka decided to step in and take charge. “We’re going to have to get to the North Pole before we figure that out, Aang. We’ve gotten a bit off-track with that trip to the Fire Nation after we left Senlin, but we had a route, and we should stick with it.”

“Sokka’s right,” Katara said. Man, she _must_ have been in a good mood if she was saying that. “Where was it you wanted to go after Senlin?”

“You said Gaipan, right, Zuko?” Aang asked.

“I thought Tyro said Gaipan’s been occupied for a few years?” Sokka remembered. He nodded decisively. “We should avoid it.”

“Why’d you have us going to a Fire Nation town?” Katara asked. She sounded more skeptical than angry, though.

Zuko seemed to pick up on the difference too, because he didn’t look quite as nervous as he usually did when Katara talked to him about the Fire Nation. “My Uncle’s got a friend there who can help us. I know it’s a little trickier than we’d want, but I’ve got a plan.”

Sokka took great offence at that – _he_ was the plan guy! He’d even helped his Dad with his plans!

“What’s the plan, then?” He wanted to know. “Is it the plan where you don’t tell us you’re a firebender until you’ve already joined us? Or the plan where you don’t tell us you’re banished until you’ve already gone to the Fire Nation and back again?”

Even as he was saying it, he knew it was a bit of a harsh thing to say. But something about how Zuko kept acting like he just _knew_ what the plan was – like he just _expected_ them to follow his lead – it was really starting to rub Sokka up the wrong way.

And the most annoying part was how Zuko was looking at him with a surprised expression, like Sokka wasn’t even supposed to be mad that the other boy was coming in and messing with _his_ leadership.

“I just need to talk to my Uncle’s friend in Gaipan,” Zuko said. “They can give us information, and then we can go. It’s Makapu next, and that’s an Earth Kingdom village.”

Sokka considered it. He didn’t like the idea that Zuko already had the next destination in mind. But if this Gaipan guy could give them useful information, that could help Sokka in planning the next stages of their journey.

“Alright,” he decided. “We’ll go on to Gaipan. But if Katara gets mad again, and we end up seeing a Dark Water Spirit there, the deal’s _off_ , and we’re going _straight_ to the nearest Earth Kingdom village.”

Weirdly, Zuko seemed to find that funny.

“Trust me, Sokka,” he shook his head. “You won’t have to worry about the Dark Water Spirit in Gaipan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the scene where Iroh teaches Zuko how to perform Leaping Dolphin Fish, check out the ‘One hundred and forty-nine to nil’ sections of my fic '[Seventy-two to nil](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27082654)'.


	20. Chapter 20

Zuko and Katara seemed to have reached some sort of unspoken understanding, and whilst he was glad that she hadn’t seen fit to swing another frying pan at his head, he still couldn’t help but feel a little nervous whenever she joined him in the morning to make breakfast. Most days, though, she had seemed satisfied with sitting down to watch him make the oatmeal and chop up fruit. Zuko was pretty sure she was just waiting for him to add some lethal Fire Nation poison to the food. Like sugar. Or honey. Spirits forbid he add _cinnamon_.

But she didn’t seem to outright hate him anymore, at least, and he’d thought that things had gone okay when they’d talked about her bending yesterday. So when Katara came out of the tent – she was back to sharing with Sokka again now, after Zuko had _finally_ convinced the Water Tribe siblings that he wasn’t going to kill Aang, he just _could not deal with Sokka’s snoring_ – a little earlier than usual, Zuko gave her a tentative smile before moving to snuff out his candles.

She shook her head, and her loopies swung a little from the movement. “You don’t have to stop. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

The last time he’d been firebending in front of her, she’d pretty much given him a concussion. “Are you sure?”

To his surprise, she sat down opposite him. She was looking at the candle a little intently, but it wasn’t like he was going to, like, _attack_ her with it.

“I just wanted to say thanks for helping me with the water whip.”

“Oh.” Zuko didn’t think Azula had ever said _thank you_ when he’d helped her out. In truth, he couldn’t remember a time when he’d been in a position to. And she’d certainly never have helped _him_. “That’s cool. I didn’t really do much. That was all you.”

“Thanks,” Katara was still watching the candle with a determined look in her blue eyes. “But, still. You didn’t have to do that – and you let me practice on you.”

“Not so sure I let you,” Zuko pointed out. “You kind of just went after me.”

“Well, thanks for letting me go after you.”

Zuko dared to try and make a joke. “Well, uh. It hurt less than the frying pan.”

Katara seemed a bit confused for a minute, before her expression lightened.

“I should probably say sorry for that,” she said. Then she gave him a small smirk. It felt teasing, somehow. “Maybe one day.”

He swallowed. Better not push his luck. Whatever _that_ meant. “That’s cool. You can just show Sokka what you’ve learnt. That’ll be fine.”

Katara laughed, and Zuko breathed a sigh of relief. He’d told Uncle that he’d been nervous about getting on with Sokka and Katara – he knew he wasn’t always easy to get along with. And although Sokka still seemed a bit wary of him, at least Katara seemed to be warming up to him. She hadn’t put his candle out yet.

As if she could hear what he was thinking, Katara motioned to the small flame. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to, like, distract you.”

“That’s cool,” Zuko reassured her. “Uncle always made me use candles to help me connect to my inner fire, but – like, I’ve improved a lot since then,” he added, feeling that familiar defensiveness rise up in him. “I still like doing it, though. It’s calming.”

Katara nodded. “You said it helps you focus.” She looked a little thoughtful. “When you said it helps you connect to your inner fire, is that like what you were saying to Aang a while ago?”

“About what?”

“About how you’ve got to feel a connection to your element.”

“Oh.” Zuko had been worried she’d heard him talking to Aang about the time he’d gotten to his feet after meditating, only to trip on his robes and fall into turtleduck poop. He wasn’t sure how she would have got that from what he’d been saying, but he’d still worried. “Yeah, a little bit.”

“Because I was thinking about how I was bending last night,” Katara continued. “And I realized that… I don’t think I feel _connected_ to water. Not like how you and Aang were talking about being connected to your bending.”

She fell silent, and Zuko waited for her to continue, like Uncle had always done for him. But after a while, Katara shook her head.

“Anyway – that’s kind of stupid – I’m going to get started on breakfast –”

“No – wait,” Zuko reached out a hasty hand as she began to get to her feet, but paused before he had even reached across the candle. “Do you, um – do you want to talk about it?”

She looked at his hand, then slowly settled back down. A few strands of her brown hair had fallen away from her hair loopies, and she brushed them away from her blue eyes and tucked them behind her ears.

“I just don’t know how to connect to my element,” she said. “I don’t _feel_ water like Aang says you feel your firebending.”

“Okay,” Zuko thought for a moment about how to explain it, but decided that it probably wouldn’t be very helpful. Fire and water were opposites – it might not even be the same thing. “Well – how does it feel now, when you bend?”

“It just feels – _hard_. I have to see the water to know what I’m bending, but even when there’s a lot of water, I can’t always take hold of it. Like – you can make that candle brighter with your eyes closed, but I can’t… I don’t know how to bend water I can’t see. I can’t _feel_ it like that. How did you learn?”

Zuko hesitated. After his banishment, he had been so afraid of fire that the first time Lieutenant Jee had bent to light the oil lamps in the bridge, he had shouted and darted into the corner of the room. It had taken Uncle two weeks to work up to candles, and another month after that before Zuko had felt confident enough to close his eyes.

“Uncle made me sit down with a few candles,” he said instead. “And he’d make me focus on the candles. Usually the middle one, but sometimes he’d switch it up. Uh, this one time, I spent, like, an hour making the wrong candle light up.”

Uncle had told him that he would have stopped him sooner, but his breathing technique had been excellent, just like in the scrolls.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to focus on candles,” Katara said. “Not even the wrong one.”

“No,” Zuko agreed, getting an idea and getting to his feet. “But if we just…”

He took one of their bowls and poured out one of their waterskins into it, before filling another with the simmering cooking water. Then, he carefully put them down in front of Katara.

“Just – see if you can reach out for these two bowls,” he told her. “Close your eyes, and try and feel for them.”

She looked dubious. “Like – with my bending?”

He wondered if he was asking too much of her. “It’s okay if you don’t –”

“No,” she interrupted, and he suddenly remembered what she had said when they had been talking on Appa.

_I’ve never wanted anything more. And I’m not going to give up._

Katara closed her eyes and breathed. Zuko watched her for a few moments before settling back into his own meditation.

…

Katara didn’t know what she was meant to be doing, so she just closed her eyes and tried to concentrate.

Zuko was quiet, which she appreciated. Aang had meant well, but he’d told her what she needed to do before she even knew what she was _trying_ to do. She wanted to at least see if she _could_ connect to her element before figuring out how.

There was _something_ , she realized. She could feel _something_ on the edge of her consciousness, there and yet not there. It seemed to come and go, and she remembered how making waves in the water had been about the push and pull.

Keeping her eyes closed, she tried to focus on that presence on the edge of her mind. When it came near to her again, she tried to catch onto it. It was tricky, but she felt like she was getting used to it. It was a little disconcerting whenever she felt it fade into the background of her mind, but she quickly learnt to seize onto it whenever she felt it come back. It was like the tides, in a way. Push and pull, back and forth…

She began to move her hands in time with the rhythm of the water. She pushed her hands away as the water receded, and pulled them back in as the sense of presence came nearer.

“Whoa! Katara, that’s amazing!”

Katara gasped and her eyes snapped open. She heard a _splash_ as the water fell back into the bowl, and Zuko hissed as hot water splashed onto his hand.

“Sorry!” She scrambled back, but her leg knocked one of the bowls over and she groaned as water spilled out onto the ground.

“It’s fine,” Zuko waved her off. He gave Aang an unimpressed scowl. “A little warning would be nice, though.”

Aang had the decency to look a little sheepish. “Sorry, Katara. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Katara looked at Zuko’s hand, but he seemed to be unharmed. “It’s fine, Aang,” she echoed him. “I think I was just concentrating.”

“That was so cool, though,” Aang gushed. “You were bending that water!”

Katara had _thought_ she was, but with her eyes closed, she hadn’t wanted to open them and maybe be disappointed. To hear that she’d been _right_ , that she could sense the water without having to see it – she felt vindicated!

“What was I doing?” She asked eagerly.

“You were bending the water!” Aang told her, albeit rather obviously. “You were doing that back-and-forth thing,” he motioned with his hands, even making sound effects that sounded like a wave.

“How did you feel?” Zuko asked.

“I could feel the water,” she said, feeling the urge to laugh. She’d _felt_ her element! She could do it! “It was like – it was there, and when I was there with it, I could reach out to it. And when I tried to move with it, it was easier. I was bending it?”

She _really_ wanted to be told that she wasn’t imagining it. She wanted to do it again.

“You were bending the hot water,” Zuko explained with a small smile. “Not the other bowl, though.”

That was okay; Katara could try and bend that later. She’d been bending! She hadn’t needed to keep her eyes open and just _hope_ that she could make the water move. She’d _felt_ the water, she’d reached out and found it, and bent it!

Aang’s stomach growled, and he laughed nervously. “Sorry… uh – I was wondering if breakfast was ready?”

Katara was about to get up and chop some fruit up, but Zuko was already on his feet.

“Hope you like oatmeal,” he told Aang.

“Is there fruit?”

“What, are you royalty now?” Zuko asked, giving Aang a light nudge. “ _Fruit_ , honestly…”

Aang laughed, and poked him back before he sat down where Zuko had been. “Are you still using this candle, Hotman?”

“Put it out, Aang,” Zuko requested, chopping up some mangoes. “And then go wake Sokka up, okay? Let Katara keep practicing.”

“No, it’s fine,” Katara didn’t want Aang to feel like he was being pushed away. She licked her fingers and pinched out the candle. “I can go get Sokka – sit down and have breakfast, okay?”

“It’s okay, Katara,” Aang waved her away. “Practice is important, and what you were doing looked super cool! Besides,” he added with a grin. “I kind of wanted to try and wake Sokka up.”

“With that cold current?” Zuko asked.

It didn’t make sense to Katara, but when Aang nodded, she was surprised to hear Zuko laugh. It was a low little chuckle that didn’t sound much like Aang’s high-pitched giggles or Sokka’s guffaws.

“Make sure you’re out of there before he throws a boomerang at you,” Zuko said, putting two bowls of oatmeal down next to Katara. “Food’s ready when you get back.”

Aang bobbed his head and went off to the tent Katara was sharing with Sokka. Just before he went in, he turned back to them to give them a sneaky grin and put a finger to his lips.

Katara giggled, but she figured that she probably wasn’t going to get any more opportunities to practice. Reluctantly, she poured the hot water out onto the ground and went to go and serve herself some breakfast.

Zuko looked a bit confused when she joined him at the cooking pot. “What’re you doing?”

She held up her bowl. “Getting myself some food.”

“I put some out for you.” He pointed back at the two bowls. “You and Aang.”

“Oh.” She’d thought that was for Aang and Sokka. “Thanks.”

He shook his head and held up a ladle of oatmeal. “Give me your bowl?”

Katara took a couple of slices of apple and a few mango chunks and dropped them over her oatmeal before going back to where she had been sitting. A loud yell and the sound of scuffling rang out before Aang ran out of the tent giggling.

“I swear to fucking Tui, Aang!” An exceptionally aggravated voice followed him.

“Sokka’s awake,” the Avatar announced.

Zuko smirked as he handed one of the oatmeal bowls over to him. “I can tell.”

Katara’s brother didn’t look at all happy as he stomped over to join them. “Aang, if you do that one more time, I’m gonna fucking –”

“You’re going to _what_ , Sokka?” Katara glared at him menacingly. She didn’t want to hear that sort of language – she _especially_ didn’t want Aang to be hearing it!

Sokka’s mouth worked wordlessly for a few moments, before he made a frustrated noise and folded his arms.

“Nothing,” he conceded grudgingly.

“That’s right,” she nodded, handing him his bowl of oatmeal. “There’s fruit by the pot.”

Sokka grumbled all the way to the pot, and even several handfuls of apple and mango didn’t seem enough to placate him.

“Let’s just _go_ ,” he muttered, poking at his breakfast. “The sooner we’re in Gaipan, the better.”

…

Aang decided that Sokka’s instincts were more like Sokka’s in- _stinks_ , because Appa hadn’t been very happy about having to walk through the forest. But Zuko had agreed that Appa was pretty recognizable, and it was a good idea to _not_ be recognized near a Fire Nation village, because Zhao was probably still after them. Aang had tried to cheer Appa up by showing him how he was getting really good at bending his acorns _and_ his marbles. He could even do it whilst he was walking through the forest, now!

He might even have been a bit distracted, but so was everyone else. That might have been why they had walked right into a group of Fire Nation soldiers.

Luckily, though, even if Sokka’s instincts had been wrong about being safe from the Fire Nation, Sokka had been right about one thing; the sooner they were in Gaipan, the better. Because Jet and his Freedom Fighters were _awesome!_ They’d taken out a whole army almost single-handedly.

Sokka hadn’t thought it was very impressive, which Aang had thought was kind of rude. But he probably couldn’t talk, because he’d accidentally gotten Pipsqueak and The Duke messed up. He’d have to remember their names in the future.

“I’m Aang,” he introduced himself. “These are my friends – that’s Katara, and that’s Sokka, and that’s –”

“You can call me Lee,” Zuko interrupted. Oh yeah, he didn’t like people knowing his real name when they were around other people. Aang could understand that – maybe he’d need to get his own fake name? He could call himself Bonzu Pippinpaddleopsicopolis III again, but maybe this time he could give himself a cool backstory. Maybe he could be a baker from the southern Earth Kingdom who had sold his bakery to follow his dream of being a travelling bard? That could be fun!

But Aang had to admit, it wasn’t quite as cool as Jet. He was a Freedom Fighter who lived in the trees! Over the past few years, they’d been ambushing Fire Nation troops, cutting off their supply lines, and doing tons of other stuff to mess with them.

Katara had seemed quite impressed with Jet as well, and Aang was glad to see that she was being friendly again. She’d been getting on with Zuko at breakfast, and now that she seemed to be friends with Zuko, Aang was happy that she was back to her old self. He just hoped that she’d stay that way; she’d been a bit sad after they’d left Haru’s village, and Jet seemed like a really great guy. Aang hoped that she wouldn’t be sad again once they had to leave.

Sokka had made it sound like they needed to leave _tonight_ , but Zuko had reminded him that they needed to stay for a bit. Sokka had seemed a bit put out, but when Jet had told him that he needed him for an important mission, he had said it was okay to stay a bit longer. Aang was happy to hear that – The Duke and Sneers had promised to show him what they called _tree-hopping._ From the way they’d described it, it sounded like the aim of the game was to start on the forest floor in one place, and then climb and scramble up into the trees, and race through the treetops to another place in the forest, and the first person to land on the ground in that part of the forest won.

Aang had asked if he could use his airbending, and they said airbending whilst tree-hopping sounded like even more fun. They’d made plans to see if he could airbend The Duke and Sneers whilst they were tree-hopping to give them a bit of a boost.

“How’re you finding the food, Aang?” Jet asked, coming over and sitting down beside him. He had one leg stretched out in front of him, but his arm was slung over one knee. He looked really grown-up.

“It’s really good!” Aang nodded. The stew was a bit cold, but he didn’t mind that. He’d felt a bit nervous about eating it, but Jet had reassured him that it was vegetarian, and that had been good enough for him.

“I’m sorry about the stew,” Jet gave him an apologetic look. “I know it’s a bit cold. Sometimes, Pipsqueak’s cooking can be… inconsistent.”

“That’s okay, Jet,” Katara said. “It’s nice to have someone else doing the cooking. I do all the cooking for our group, you know. I’m actually pretty good at it.”

“Yeah,” Aang agreed. “Katara’s really good at cooking. And Lee’s quite good, too. He doesn’t cook as much as Katara, but he does some really good dumplings.”

He was quite proud of himself for remembering Zuko’s fake name. He wondered if Zuko could help him come up with a backstory for Bonzu Pippinpaddleopsicopolis III.

“Lee does some cooking too, huh?” Jet turned to Katara. “I bet he’s not as good as you. Something tells me he should leave it to the experts.”

Katara giggled. “Well, I’ll cook you something and show you. I bet I’m better than Pipsqueak.”

Jet was smiling as he turned to face Zuko. “What about you, Lee? Think you’ve got what it takes?”

“Probably not,” Zuko muttered. “Like Aang said, I just do dumplings.”

Jet hummed consideringly, looking at Zuko. “You managed to get the hot stew, huh?”

Zuko paused and his eyes widened. Aang and Sokka both looked at his steaming bowl of food.

“No fair!” Sokka complained. “How come _you_ got the hot stew? Mine’s freezing!”

“Uh, that might have been Katara,” Zuko said. “She’s a waterbender. Maybe she made the liquid hot.” He swallowed. “Because she’s a waterbender.”

Jet nodded, and turned back to Katara, who smiled at him. “You said you could use some more training,” he told her. “But that’s pretty impressive.”

Aang was happy to hear someone telling Katara that she was a good waterbender. She’d been doing really well, and she seemed to be really coming on and improving now she had that waterbending scroll.

Katara looked happy to hear it, too. “Well, it could have been by accident – but I’ve been trying to teach myself with a scroll I stole from pirates.”

Jet laughed. “Pirates?” He turned to Zuko. “Sounds like you’ve got your hands full, Lee. The Avatar’s one thing, but you’ve got Katara to keep you on your toes. She seems pretty special.”

“And Sokka, too,” Aang pointed out, giving Sokka a smile. “Sokka can be kind of crazy sometimes, too.”

“I’m only crazy because you all keep _me_ on _my_ toes,” Sokka said in an annoyed voice. “I’m trying to lead this group, but you don’t make it easy. But I’m still leading anyway!”

Aang thought Sokka was a bit mad at him, but he wasn’t sure why. He’d already apologized for the way he’d woken him up earlier. Was this about his boomerang again?

“Guess it must be pretty tough to keep everyone in line,” Jet said smoothly. “But food always helps keep everyone happy. You guys want some more?”

Aang had actually found the stew pretty tasty, and of course Sokka wanted some more food. Katara said she’d have some more food if Jet had some, but Zuko said he was full.

“That’s cool, buddy,” Sokka said. “More for me!”


	21. Chapter 21

Katara couldn’t remember much of her mother, but she could remember the way she had laughed when Dad had picked her up and swung her around. Her laugh had been high and clear, and she’d wrapped her arms around Dad’s neck and pressed her face into his hair, telling him to _put her down_ or _she’d really show him!_

When Dad had brought her back down and put her back on her feet, they had always hugged for a while afterwards. Sokka had thought it was weird, and it gave him the _oogies_ , but Katara had known that Mom and Dad had done that because they had loved each other.

She had always secretly hoped that her future husband would be tall and strong enough to pick her up and swing her around. She’d also hoped that he would have nice-smelling hair she could run her hands through. But back at the South Pole, the only boy Katara’s age had been her brother. _Gross_.

And when she thought about the boys she’d met since leaving the South Pole… Aang was only twelve, and Haru had been nice and kind of handsome, but when he’d tried to kiss her just before they left his village, she’d been too busy thinking about her mother’s necklace to really expect it, and that had been weird.

But Jet was brave enough to fight back against the Fire Nation, and he’d wrapped his arm around her and held onto her as they had been lifted up into the trees. He’d smelt like cut grass and her eyes hadn’t even come up to his strong jaw.

Katara wondered what it would feel like if she could run her fingers through his hair.

“That’s kind of crazy, that you’re travelling with the Avatar,” Jet was saying, and she mentally shook herself out of her daydreaming.

“Hmm?”

“I said it’s cool that you’re travelling with Aang,” Jet said again. “He said you’re going to the North Pole to learn how to bend?”

“Oh.” Katara was happier now she had something exciting to share with Jet. “Yeah, I’m really excited about it. Lee’s been teaching me some stuff.”

“Lee?” Jet’s mouth twisted. “I didn’t know you guys were close.”

“We’re not,” she assured him. “He’s just been teaching me some stuff. I’m still not great, but he’s helped me figure out that it’s easier for me to bend hot water than cool water.”

“How does that work?” Jet asked.

Katara didn’t think anyone had paid this much interest to her bending before. Not even Haru, who had _been_ a bender. “Well, I can’t really do much with cold water, but I can bend hot water more easily.”

Jet gave her a meaningful look, but she couldn’t understand what it was. She _wanted_ to understand Jet, though.

“But I guess that’s why you’re going to the North Pole,” he said eventually, giving her a gentle nudge and a smile. She had to bite her lip so she wouldn’t smile back at him. “So you can figure the rest out.”

“And so Aang can learn,” Katara reminded him. “He’s got to learn waterbending, too.”

Jet was sitting next to her, but he turned to look at her and give her his full attention. Katara hoped her hair hadn’t fallen out of her loopies. “You’re right, Katara. The Avatar’s our greatest hope to rid the world of the Fire Nation and end this war.”

Katara should have realized Jet was thinking of the bigger picture whilst she was daydreaming. She gave herself a quick scolding and tried to pay more attention. “My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days. Even when people thought the Avatar had vanished, I never lost hope.”

“That’s really good to hear, Katara,” Jet said sincerely. “That’s what makes you special. But we can’t just rely on the Avatar, you know? We’ve all got to play our part in defeating the Fire Nation.”

From what Katara had seen, Jet was playing his part really well. “I think it’s really brave, what you’re doing.” She blushed, hoping she wasn’t being too obvious. “It sounds like you’re causing the Fire Nation lots of trouble.”

She remembered what Haru had been saying.

 _They’ve been showing up across the Earth Kingdom for the past couple of years, causing trouble for the Fire Nation, dealing with their soldiers, messing up their supply lines_.

The man in a mask had been tall, she remembered. He’d been a really good fighter, and he’d saved her.

“Jet,” she started, trying not to let herself get too excited. “Do you know anything about the Blue Spirit?”

Jet let out a breath and leant back against the tree trunk they were sitting on.

“They’re a hero, Katara,” he said fervently. “I remember when we were just starting out as the Freedom Fighters, not really knowing what we were doing – I wasn’t even sure I could lead these kids, you know? But hearing about what the Blue Spirit was doing…” He shook his head. “Wherever they are, they’re doing their part in fighting the Fire Nation.”

Katara had known it wasn’t very likely, but she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t disappointed. But Jet was here now, and she didn’t want to remember anything more of her time on that pirate ship than she had to. Even if Jet had thought it was really impressive, it had still been really scary.

“I think you’re just as much of a hero, Jet,” she told him, hoping that he wouldn’t think she was being silly. But the moonlight wasn’t very strong, and maybe her blush wouldn’t show up on her dark skin.

“Thanks, Katara,” Jet shifted closer to her. “It means a lot to me, that someone like you would say that.”

She _really_ hoped her cheeks weren’t as red as she thought they might be. “Someone like me?”

“Someone who’s fighting to end this war,” Jet explained softly. “Someone who understands.”

Jet’s long fingers were warm as he reached over to take her hand. Katara heard herself gasp.

It was all suddenly so real; the smell of grass, the solid mass of Jet’s shoulder as he sat next to her, the weight of his hand in hers.

She scrambled to her feet, and Jet looked surprised as he looked up at her. His wheat stalk swayed as he opened his mouth. “Katara, I –”

“It’s okay,” she said hastily. Her pulse was racing and her heartbeat was thudding in her ears. Her hand felt warm. “It’s okay, I just –”

“It’s okay, Katara,” Jet said, getting to his feet. “You’re right – it’s getting late.”

Katara couldn’t remember what she’d been saying. “It is?”

“You should be getting some sleep,” Jet told her. He stepped closer and Katara had to take deep breaths as he brushed her hair behind her ear. “I think your brother might be worried about you.”

“Sokka?”

“I don’t want him to worry,” Jet told her sincerely. “Family’s important. I’d never want to worry about one of my Fighters.”

Katara had to wrap her arms around herself to keep herself grounded as they began to walk. “You really care about them, huh?”

Jet nodded. “I’d do anything for them. But something tells me you understand how that feels.”

Katara thought about how Sokka had protected her from Zuko, and how Aang hadn’t thought twice about helping her save Haru and his father. She thought about her mother, and how brave she had been.

“I do,” she said, and when Jet smiled down at her in the moonlight, she thought Jet might understand her, too.

…

Aang had woken up quite early the next morning. Well, he hadn’t quite been sure what time he’d woken up, but he’d woken up before Katara, so it must have been pretty early. Just because he’d woken up before Sokka didn’t mean anything; Aang was pretty sure that Sokka would be happy to sleep in until late afternoon if he could.

So Zuko was the only other one of their group who was awake, which Aang was pretty okay with. Zuko wasn’t bad company, most of the time. You just had to wait until he was finished with his firebending meditation.

But today, Zuko wasn’t sitting down with a candle – he was just sitting by the entrance to the treehouse Jet had set them up in, looking out at the sun.

“Zuko?” Aang asked. He hoped the older boy hadn’t fallen asleep – that was the only way in and out of the treehouse. If Zuko was blocking the exit, how was Aang supposed to go out and go tree-hopping with The Duke and Sneers?

Thankfully, though, Zuko proved he was awake by turning around. “Hey, Aang.” His voice was hushed. “Sleep okay?”

“Yeah,” Aang answered just as quietly. “Are we trying to not wake Katara and Sokka up?”

Zuko nodded as Aang sat down next to him. “I don’t think anyone else is up, either.”

Aang guessed that meant he wasn’t going to be going tree-hopping anytime soon. “How come you’re not meditating?”

“I am,” Zuko answered. “But I think – well, I guess I _wasn’t_ thinking when I heated up my stew last night. I should be more careful. Jet doesn’t like the Fire Nation; I don’t think advertising what I am would be a good thing.”

“Katara and Sokka don’t like the Fire Nation either,” Aang reminded him. “And they like you okay.”

“Remember when Katara hit me with a frying pan?”

Oops. Aang had actually forgotten that.

“Okay, but then she got to know you, and you guys are okay now. And Sokka didn’t hit you with a frying…” Aang remembered how Sokka had hit Zuko with a boomerang. “Never mind.”

“I don’t think we’re going to stick around long enough for Jet to get to know me, Aang,” Zuko told him. “Hopefully we’ll be out of here by tonight.”

“Once you’ve met your Uncle’s friend?” Aang wondered what this friend of Uncle’s would be like. Bumi was friends with Zuko’s Uncle, so maybe they’d be a bit like Bumi. “Can I come?”

Zuko seemed to think about it for a bit, which made Aang a bit hopeful, but eventually shook his head. “Sorry, Aang. Not right now. But soon, I promise.”

Aang was disappointed, but he knew that people in the Fire Nation kept their promises. “Do you know when?”

Zuko huffed, which Aang knew was a sign that he found what Aang was saying annoying, but amusing. “When your voice cracks.”

Aang huffed right back at him, and used his airbending to make his _huff_ ruffle Zuko’s hair. “I’m a hundred and twelve! Show your elders some respect.”

“Your breath stinks,” Zuko complained, coughing into his sleeve. “Smells like something _died_ a hundred and twelve years ago.”

“Learn some _respect_ , Zuko,” Aang insisted. He was still laughing at how put-out Zuko had looked when he’d blown his morning breath all over him when he realized Zuko had a weird look on his face. “Zuko?”

“Hmm?” He blinked, and shook his head a bit dazedly. “What?”

“Are you okay?” Aang checked up on him. “You went kind of weird there.”

“Oh – yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”

Aang wasn’t convinced. Zuko looked a bit like Sokka had after Hei Bai. “Are you sure? ‘Cause if you want, we can talk about it?”

“I’m fine, Aang,” Zuko replied firmly. “Just thinking. I’ll probably be going out to meet my Uncle’s friend before lunch, okay?”

Aang still wasn’t entirely sure Zuko was okay, but he figured if he wanted to talk about it, he’d talk about it. “Do you think they’ll be up by then?”

Zuko frowned. “Uncle’s friend?”

“No,” Aang pointed to Katara and Sokka. “Them. And the rest of the camp,” he added as an afterthought. “Actually, The Duke and Sneers told me we could go tree-hopping today, and that sounded kind of cool.”

“Tree-hopping?” Zuko repeated. “What’s that?”

Aang explained how it was about getting from one point of the forest to the other as fast as possible without letting your feet touch the ground, and Zuko seemed pretty interested in it. Apparently, he’d played a similar game with his sister when he was younger, and they’d called it The Floor Is Lava. They’d started off just trying to make sure their feet weren’t touching the ground by standing on a chair or something, but then when Zuko’s sister was older, they’d moved on to trying to get from place to place without touching the floor.

“It was one of the only games I could actually win consistently,” Zuko said with a small chuckle. “She always got so mad, but we were both so competitive that we kept playing.”

“Did she ever win?” Aang asked.

Zuko shrugged. “This one time, she firebent at me and pushed me off the roof. So I guess I lost, technically. But I fractured my ankle, so we agreed it was a tie.”

Aang really hoped The Duke and Sneers didn’t plan on pushing him out of a tree. He was an airbender, so he would probably be okay, but still…

“Well, I don’t think The Duke or Sneers are firebenders,” he said instead, trying to lighten the mood a bit. “So I think we should be okay.”

“You’ll probably have a bit more fun than I did,” Zuko acknowledged.

“You hate fun, Hotman,” Aang reminded him. “I _always_ have more fun than you.”

“Your idea of ‘fun’ is riding the mail chutes,” Zuko pointed out. “That’s not fun, that’s suicidal.”

“Well, maybe I’ll get The Duke or Sneers to push me out of a tree, then. If I find that fun, I’ll let you know. And you can have another thing to not find fun.”

Zuko rolled his eyes and leaned over to put his weight on Aang. “I could push you out of this tree,” he offered. “I might find that fun.”

Aang shoved him off and grinned at him. “Try it, Hotman. I’ll come back up here and _breath_ on you.”

“Don’t you dare,” Zuko said, and Aang had to laugh at how alarmed he looked. “Seriously, Aang, if you do that, I’ll stick your head in Sokka’s sleeping bag.”

That was a serious enough threat for Aang to call a truce, and they spent a while talking about Omashu before The Duke popped his head up to tell Aang that it was time to go tree-hopping.

“If he gives you any trouble, push him off,” Zuko told Sneers as they left.

“Love you too, Hotman!” Aang called back cheerily.

“Don’t call me that!”

…

Jet had woken Sokka up for their important mission, and then spent five minutes talking with Katara at the other end of their treehouse. They’d been all _giggly_ , which Sokka had found utterly distasteful, not to mention somewhat contradictory. Jet had spent all that time talking up how important this mission was, but now he was wasting daylight leaning down to whisper in Sokka’s baby sister’s ear!

Eventually, Jet had managed to tear himself away from Katara’s adoring presence, and they’d made their way through the forest. Jet and Smellerbee had gone on ahead through the trees, but Jet had made Pipsqueak stay behind with Sokka.

“It’s probably safer if you walk on the ground,” he’d said to Sokka. “Pipsqueak knows the way. He usually travels through the trees with us, but we wouldn’t want to risk it.”

Sokka was pretty sure he could have gone tree-running _just fine_ , but Pipsqueak was a big guy, so he’d just done his best to grin and bear it.

“Don’t want any accidents,” he’d agreed through gritted teeth.

Once he’d shinned up a tree and joined Jet in some of the lower branches, though, he’d shown some good old Water Tribe ingenuity. He’d felt pretty smug when he got the chance to explain to Jet that sticking his jawbone knife into the trunk of the tree amplified vibrations, and Jet had seemed pretty impressed.

“Good work, Sokka,” he nodded. “Ready your weapon.”

Sokka had drawn his knife out again and prepared himself. Now was his chance to show what the Southern Tribe could do!

When he saw it was just an old man, though, he’d realized his mistake.

“Wait,” he cautioned Jet. “False alarm – he’s just an old man.”

But Jet didn’t seem to care that this was just some old guy; he’d already jumped down from the tree to confront him.

“What are you doing in our woods, you leech?” He snarled.

The old man took a few steps back in shock, and he looked at Jet’s swords with terror.

“Please, sir,” he managed, eyes darting from Jet to Jet’s swords to Sokka and back to the swords. “I’m just a traveler.”

Quicker than Sokka could react, Jet had taken a step forward and sent the old man’s cane flying with a furious swipe. The old man stumbled backwards and turned to run, but Pipsqueak had come up behind him. The old man ran straight into the big guy, and he fell backwards with a cry. Pipsqueak growled and pressed a foot into his back, trapping him on the floor.

“Do you like destroying towns?” Jet demanded, stepping forward and towering over the helpless man. “Do you like destroying families? _Do you?_ ”

“Please,” the old man begged. “Please, let me go. Have mercy.”

Sokka didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t been prepared for this. Jet had seemed like one of the good guys; a bit dangerous, sure, but Sokka hadn’t expected _anything_ like this.

Sokka’s Dad had always told him that when the Fire Nation had attacked civilians, it was their greatest crime. But if _Jet_ was attacking civilians –

Sokka’s _mom_ had been a civilian.

“Hey!”

Jet paused, and Sokka spun around, looking for the source of the voice. Even Pipsqueak seemed a bit confused, but Sokka suspected that might not have been an irregular occurrence.

“Cut it out, Jet!” The voice came out again, and Sokka _knew_ that grumpy, angry voice.

Zuko stomped into the path, and his furious scowl tugged at his scar.

“He’s just an old man,” he growled at Jet.

“Yeah!” Sokka found his voice at last. “He’s not hurting anyone, Jet!”

“We don’t know that, Sokka,” Jet snarled. “Pipsqueak, search him!”

“Give me that.” Zuko snatched up the old man’s bag, but before he’d managed to get rummaging through it, Smellerbee had snatched it from him in turn.

Sokka caught Zuko’s eye as they stood awkwardly by. He’d been working up to challenge Jet and call him out on what he was doing, but he couldn’t lie and say he’d been feeling confident about his chances, if it was Jet and his cronies against him. But for Zuko to come in and take charge like that…

“This doesn’t _feel_ right,” he appealed again to Jet.

“It's what has to be done,” Jet said grimly. “Now, let's get out of here.”

He shoved past Sokka, leading Smellerbee and Pipsqueak away. Sokka looked at the old man on his hands and knees.

Zuko crouched down. “I’m sorry this happened to you. I can’t get your stuff back, but – here.”

He handed something to the old man, who looked up at him in surprise. “You –”

“Go back to Gaipan,” Zuko instructed him. “And stay safe. We won’t be able to help you again.”

“Come on, Sokka!” Jet yelled.

Zuko didn’t wait for the old man to get up before he was grabbing Sokka and hauling him away. Sokka tore himself out of Zuko’s grasp and glared at him.

“I had that whole situation under control,” he began hotly, but Zuko cut him off.

“No, you didn’t.”

Okay, Sokka _wasn’t_ going to stand for that. “Look, buddy, just ‘cause you came in and _saved the day_ –”

“That guy was my _contact_ , Sokka,” Zuko hissed, and okay, _that_ shut Sokka up. “That was my Uncle’s friend on his way to meet me, and Jet almost killed him. Why didn’t you _do_ anything?”

“How was I supposed to know that was your guy?” Sokka whisper-yelled back at him, keeping an eye on Jet in case that _psycho_ caught them conferring. “You didn’t tell me he was some old Fire Nation dude!”

“I didn’t want you meeting him in case things went wrong,” Zuko retorted. “Good thing nothing went wrong, though, it’s not like Jet was about to _stab_ him or anything –”

“Don’t get pissy at me because you fucked up,” Sokka told him angrily, and _man_ did it feel good to swear without Katara giving him a judgmental look. “This is _exactly_ why I didn’t want to come to Gaipan – because your plan was straight bullshit!”

“It wasn’t _bullshit_ ,” Zuko spat. “What’s _bullshit_ is that you got pulled onto a mission and ended up almost killing someone. What made you follow Jet out here?”

“Don’t act like I’m a follower!” Sokka stopped in the middle of the forest and turned to face Zuko furiously.

He _knew_ that was it! He’d known all along that Zuko was just trying to take charge – trying to treat Sokka like some _kid_ who didn’t know how to lead!

Well, Sokka was in charge, and he didn’t care if Zuko knew the Earth Kingdom, or what his stupid fucking plan was – his Dad was the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, and he’d made a promise to his father that he was going to do what he needed to do to keep his sister safe. And that meant _he_ made the plans, and _he_ led the group!

“Don’t act like I’m a follower,” he repeated lowly. “I’m still the leader, here.”

Zuko shook his head. “Fine. Do some fucking leading, then. Because there’s no way I’m following Jet.”

He turned around and climbed up a tree to vanish into the canopy, which just pissed Sokka off even more.

Tree-running was straight fucking _bullshit_.


	22. Chapter 22

Zuko had needed to give Uncle Iroh’s contact his own white lotus tile to prove who he was, which meant he’d have to find a new one pretty soon. But without it, he wasn’t sure how he’d be able to communicate with the Order in the future. The easiest thing to do would be to get into Gaipan and find that old man, but he couldn’t risk it.

Even if it had been three years, Zuko knew he had a… distinctive face. If it got back to Zhao – or even worse, the Fire Lord – that he’d broken his banishment in Gaipan, not only would he be putting the village in danger, but he’d also be leading them straight to Aang.

He’d been walking through the forest, trying to figure out how to get a message to his Uncle’s friend, when Jet had dropped down from the trees to stand next to him.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, earlier,” Jet said without preamble. “I know it can be hard to understand.”

“It’s fine,” Zuko said shortly. He didn’t want to understand Jet. The moment he did that, he was as bad as that bastard Bujing.

“Sokka didn’t seem to like it either,” Jet continued. He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. “I don’t think he likes _me_. It’s a shame. Your group seems pretty cool.”

“Katara and Aang seem to like you.”

Jet nodded, and looked upwards. Zuko followed his gaze to see Pipsqueak descending on one of their ropes.

Pipsqueak waved at them. “Hey, Jet.”

“Hey, Pipsqueak,” Jet greeted him. “You ready?”

“Oh, yeah. Hey, Lee.”

“Hi,” Zuko replied.

“Look, Lee – I like Katara and Aang,” Jet said, returning to their conversation. “It’s been nice to spend some time talking with them.”

Zuko could imagine how that had gone. “Did Aang tell you about the time he rode the elephant koi?”

“I’ve actually been talking with Katara,” Jet continued, acting as if Zuko hadn’t spoken. It grated on Zuko’s nerves. “She told me something about her bending.”

Zuko tensed as Longshot dropped down to the forest floor. The archer seemed quiet, but Zuko had been friends with Mai. He knew that you didn’t need to be _loud_ to be dangerous.

“See, Katara told me that she’s going to the North Pole to learn how to bend,” Jet explained. “She said she still can’t bend cold water.”

He chuckled, and that stupid wheat stalk wobbled about in his mouth. “Kind of silly, huh? That the temperature makes such a significant difference.”

“Katara’s still learning,” Zuko acknowledged tersely.

“Mm,” Jet agreed. “She says you’ve been helping her figure things out.”

Zuko shrugged, though he wasn’t sure why Jet was so interested in this. “I’m not a waterbender, so I’m not sure how much help I’ve been. But she’s a natural, even without my help.”

“No, Lee, I know you’re not a waterbender.” Jet shook his head. “But, see – here’s what’s got me confused. If you’re not a waterbender, and Katara can’t do anything with cold water…” He paused, and cocked his head curiously at Zuko. “How’d you get hot stew?”

Zuko heard someone drop to the ground behind him. That must have been Smellerbee.

“Maybe Pipsqueak’s a better cook than you think he is.”

Jet’s smile was all teeth. “There’s a lot of _maybes_ with you, Lee. Too many for my liking.”

“There’s a lot of questions with you, Jet,” Zuko responded, trying to keep his voice calm.

Jet ignored him again. Prick. “Katara’s not the only one who can figure things out, Lee. Maybe she hasn’t figured _you_ out yet, but I have. I know what you are.”

Zuko could probably take Jet. The swords would make it difficult, though, and he couldn’t risk firebending. That was his deniability gone.

“I don’t know how you’ve tricked them, _Lee_ ,” Jet spat, and before Zuko could blink, he was looking at Jet’s sword pointed right between his eyes. “But I’m not going to let you keep hanging around so you can betray them.”

Zuko had already had this conversation with Sokka and Katara on _multiple_ occasions. He wasn’t too keen on having it again. “I’m not your enemy, Jet.”

“No, see – that’s where you’re _wrong_ ,” Jet’s dark eyes flashed. “You’re _Fire Nation_ , Lee, aren’t you? You’re one of those _ashmakers_.”

“I’m on the Avatar’s side.”

“ _Liar!_ ” Jet yelled. He drew back his sword –

Zuko jabbed a left into Jet’s collarbone and _sprinted_.

 _Where were the ropes?_ He wondered to himself, darting through the forest. He needed to get up into the trees – he needed to find cover.

He heard a whistling noise and dove to his left. The hiss cut off with a _thwack_ as one of Longshot’s arrows buried itself in a tree, and he turned his dive into a roll and scrambled up onto his feet again.

“ _Hey!_ ” He yelled, but he wasn’t sure who he was yelling for. “ _Aang!_ ”

He had to veer left to avoid Pipsqueak as he landed in front of him and started towards him, _where the fuck was that rope_ –

“ _Katara!_ ”

A flash of metal was his only warning as Jet came swinging in with a flurry of swipes, slashes and thrusts.

“You don’t get to ask for help,” he grunted, coming at Zuko in a hurricane of blows. “You don’t get to come here – _to_ _my home_ – and fucking burn it _again_ – fucking _kill_ you –”

Zuko had to duck and roll out of the way of a wild swing, and lashed out, driving his left heel into Jet’s knee. The boy swore as his leg buckled, and Zuko twisted his hips, lashing his right foot into Jet’s ribs and making him drop one of his swords.

_Where’s the fucking rope?_

Zuko barely had time to scramble to his feet before Smellerbee came at him. He didn’t have time to feel guilty about launching himself at the kid, using his speed and weight to drive her into the ground before kicking off and running again.

“ _Sokka!_ ”

He thought he was running east, but he didn’t have any idea where the camp was. He was lost on the forest floor, but he couldn’t afford to climb the trees. Otherwise, he’d find himself lost in the canopy, and if Aang had been worried about them pushing _the Avatar_ out of the trees, Zuko could bet Jet’s gang wouldn’t think twice about tossing _him_ out if they caught him.

It almost made him miss Azula.

 _There was a rope_.

He had to make a hard right as he chased for the leather cord. His lungs were burning, and Smellerbee had managed to headbutt him in the neck when he’d landed on her, and he couldn’t hear anything over the blood pounding in his head, so he couldn’t hear the arrow as it whistled through the air –

Zuko howled as the arrow drove through his left calf. His leg spasmed, and he crashed to the forest floor.

He tried to get to his knees, but before he could even push his shoulders off the ground, his world went dark in a blinding explosion of pain.

…

Sokka was still fuming about how Jet’s _important mission_ had turned out to be nothing more than a shakedown when Katara had come up to him.

“Hey, Sokka,” she greeted him. “Is Jet back?”

“Yeah, he’s back,” Sokka told her angrily. “But we’re leaving!”

Aang looked confused. “What?”

Katara _pouted_. “But I made him this hat!” She protested.

If Sokka had been Jet, he would have been happy if he’d never gotten the hat. But then Sokka would have been giggling and whispering with his own _sister_ earlier in the morning, and that was just _gross_.

And he would also have been a _thug_.

Aang seemed to think that being a thug was just a _different way of life_ , but no matter how much Sokka wasn’t one to judge alternative lifestyle choices, he wasn’t willing to defend beating up innocent people. Katara, though, seemed like she was willing to defend Jet from just about any accusation, _except_ that of being Tui and La’s gift to women everywhere.

“I want to hear Jet’s side of the story,” she’d said stubbornly.

Jet’s side of the story had mainly consisted of something about how that old Fire Nation guy had been an assassin. Sokka was used to Katara and Aang telling him he was overly suspicious, but this was a level of paranoia even Sokka couldn’t get behind. Who sent some old dude to kill someone? And even if Sokka was still mad at Zuko, he couldn’t see him teaming up with an _assassin_ , of all things.

Jet produced a knife, which was apparently enough to convince Katara. Sokka was pretty sure Jet could have said any old slush and it would have been enough to convince Katara.

“I didn't see any knife!” He insisted. “And Lee didn’t say _anything_ about a knife!”

“That's because he was concealing it,” Jet explained in a patient voice. “Your buddy Lee got suspicious too, Sokka. He said he was going down to Gaipan to figure it out.”

“See, Sokka?” Katara gestured to the knife, like it proved _anything_. “I'm sure you just didn't notice the knife.”

“There was no knife!” He was about to start pulling his hair out. Maybe he should shave his head like Aang. “I’m going back to the hut and packing my things!”

Sokka had been packing his stuff away, and he’d just finished stuffing his Water Tribe parka into his bag when Katara and Aang had come back. Apparently, Jet had spun some story about how the Fire Nation was about to carry out some evil plan, or something.

“We can't leave now with the Fire Nation about to burn down a forest!” Katara insisted.

After the huge burnt patch in Hei Bai’s forest, Sokka could believe the Fire Nation could do it. But he wasn’t going to stick around to find out. He’d already been kidnapped by one pissed-off forest spirit. He wasn’t keen on a repeat performance.

“I'm sorry, Katara,” he tried to make her understand. “Jet's very smooth, but we can't trust him.”

Katara scowled. “You know what I think? You're jealous that he's a better warrior and a better leader!”

“Katara, I'm not jealous of Jet.” Fucking _Zuko_ , on the other hand… “It's just that my instincts –”

“Well, _my_ instincts tell me we need to stay here a little longer and help Jet!” Katara shook her head and turned away. “Come on, Aang.”

Sokka waited until they had left the treehouse before he threw his parka at the wall.

He was just trying to keep everyone _safe_ , he thought to himself bitterly. He’d told his Dad he was going to keep Katara _safe_ , and the safest place for them to be would be the Northern Water Tribe. He just wanted to get his little sister to the North Pole without anyone getting hurt, imprisoned, or abducted by spirits and-or pirates. Why couldn’t anyone else understand that?

Sokka knew he wasn’t as good a leader as his Dad, but he was trying! He’d talked to Suki about how she’d led the Kyoshi Warriors, and she’d said it was about how she’d been the one with the vision and the drive to influence the rest of the girls. Well, Sokka had a vision of getting their group to the North Pole, but it seemed like the more he tried to drive them on, the less influence he seemed to have with them.

And then there was _Zuko_ , he thought mulishly. Zuko, who kept talking with Katara about bending, and kept encouraging Aang to wake him up with freezing cold air blasts straight to his crotch, and who didn’t tell Sokka his plans, and just kept expecting him to shut up and follow his lead. Just because Zuko knew the Earth Kingdom better than Sokka, he just acted like that was enough to make him the _leader_. He wasn’t Katara’s brother, he wasn’t the one who’d helped break Aang out of the iceberg. He was just some dude that had shown up and Aang had just _accepted_ into their group.

But Aang _had_ accepted him, Sokka had to acknowledge, however grudgingly. Whether Sokka liked it or not, Aang was the most important person in their group. Sokka might have been the leader, but Aang was the reason they were travelling, so if he wanted Zuko around, he was probably going to be sticking around.

And whilst Sokka had always wanted his little sister to be happy, he’d never really been able to talk to her about her bending. It had just been this _thing_ that had made her the Last Waterbender of the Southern Tribe and made him Katara’s Brother, the guy who couldn’t bend. He was his Dad’s son and Katara’s brother, and now he was just Zuko’s sidekick.

But Zuko had helped that old guy when Sokka had been watching Jet threaten him. He hadn’t known what to do, but Zuko had stepped in before Jet could do some serious damage. And even if Zuko was a firebender, he’d still been talking to Katara about her bending. Sokka might not have _got_ bending, but he knew how important it was to Katara, and if Zuko was someone who got what she was trying to do, Sokka had to admit that he was probably more help to her in that respect than Sokka was.

Sokka didn’t have to like it, but if being a man was about being where you were needed, Zuko probably needed to be with them.

But something about that wasn’t adding up. He frowned.

_If Zuko was so eager to avoid the Fire Nation, why would he be going down to Gaipan?_

…

Katara had wanted to talk to Jet as soon as she had left Sokka in their treehouse, but she hadn’t wanted him to see her in such an angry mood. Sokka was just so _infuriating!_

He’d always been like that, she thought to herself. He’d always wanted to be _the best_ , and whenever people had started talking about her waterbending, he’d always been threatened by it. That’s why he’d always called it _magic water_ – because he was jealous. He wasn’t a bender, and he couldn’t handle that she’d had something he didn’t. It wasn’t even anyone’s _fault_ , it’s not like she’d asked for her to be a waterbender and for Sokka to _not_ be a waterbender, but he’d still gotten jealous over it.

And now he was out of his depth and trying to make up for it by being a _jerk_ to Jet. Katara couldn’t remember a time she’d been so ashamed of her brother. Embarrassed, sure, when he was making a fool out of himself in front of Suki on Kyoshi Island, but this was _different_. He wasn’t making an idiot out of himself in front of a girl he liked, he was making an idiot of himself in front of a boy that Katara… wanted to get to know better, she decided on.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about Jet, but she wanted to be able to find out. She’d had so few opportunities to get to know anyone on their travels, let alone someone as interesting as Jet. But she wasn’t going to have _time_ to find out if Sokka kept letting his jealousy get in the way!

She’d thought she’d been able to take the time to calm down, but as the sun went down and the moon rose into the sky, Katara had to admit to herself that Sokka had _really_ ticked her off. She didn’t think she could leave it like that with Jet, though – she’d have to go and apologize to him.

“Stupid idiot,” she ranted to herself as she made her way through the Freedom Fighters’ hideaways. “Always thinks he knows what’s best – probably doesn’t even know _how_ to swing a sword –”

“I like to think I can handle swords pretty well, actually.”

Katara squeaked as Jet made his way around the tree trunk. His dark eyes glinted, and Katara could see his white teeth as his lips parted in a smile.

“But, then again, judging from your face, you didn’t mean me,” he chuckled. “What’s on your mind, Katara?”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, feeling like a complete dolt. “I wasn’t talking about you – Sokka was just being an idiot earlier. I wanted to come and say sorry for him, but…” She trailed off. “I think I might have to apologize for myself, now.”

Jet moved a little closer and bent down so she could see him. “Hey.” He gave her a smile. “You don’t have to apologize for Sokka. He’s his own man, and he makes his own decisions.”

“Well,” she stuttered as she realized that she could feel the heat from Jet’s body. “I just wanted to tell you that we’re going to stay a bit longer. Aang and I can help you fill the reservoir.”

The way Jet smiled at her let her _know_ she’d made the right decision. “That’s amazing, Katara. I knew you’d understand.”

Katara felt warm all over, and it couldn’t just have been because she was standing so close to Jet. “Well, I just wanted to let you know,” she said. “But I guess it’s getting late, so… I’ll see you in the morning?”

“Do you have to go?” Jet asked softly. “I know your brother worries, but – I didn’t get to see much of you today. I really liked talking with you last night.”

“I really liked talking with you too,” Katara breathed. Her heart felt like it was being stretched a little too tight, like it was lifting up into her throat.

Jet’s eyes seemed to absorb the moonlight, and Katara felt like he was drawing her in too.

“If you wanted to talk some more,” he began. “We could talk in my room?”

“Wouldn’t we wake the others up?” Katara worried.

Jet shook his head and dragged his hand through his hair. Katara liked the way it hung down around his face and fell into his eyes. She _really_ liked the way he gave her a mischievous smirk.

“You don’t have to worry about the others,” Jet promised. “But you might still have to keep quiet.”

He winked and put a finger to her lips, and Katara tried to muffle her giggles as he led her through the hideout. She followed him as he stepped into a sparsely-furnished treehouse with a single bedroll, a few bags lying across the floor, and a pair of hook swords hanging up on the wall.

This must have been Jet’s living space, Katara realized. She suddenly felt really privileged – that Jet had invited her into his own little place, where he came to get away from the world.

“I guess privacy is one of the perks of being the leader?” She tried to tease, but she thought it came out a bit weakly.

“I think it’s more because I’m the oldest than because I’m the leader,” Jet admitted, lighting a candle with some spark rocks. “Sometimes I just need my own space to be alone – I don’t like to make the kids worry.”

That sounded just like Jet – he didn’t care about being a leader. He just cared about the kids. Katara turned away and tried to concentrate on the swords so he wouldn’t see her face in the candlelight.

“You always seem so mature,” she tried to tell him. “Like, you’re so responsible.”

“That’s what happens when you’re sixteen,” Jet laughed. “You wake up on your birthday, and – bam! – responsibilities.”

Katara giggled along with him. “I think that happened when I was, like, eight. I’m fourteen now.”

“You seem older,” Jet told her sincerely. “You seem so grown-up.”

“Sokka always says I’m a kid,” she said, before immediately regretting it.

She shouldn’t have mentioned Sokka! And she _definitely_ shouldn’t have made it sound like she was just a little kid! Stupid, _stupid_ –

“But I’m not that much of a kid,” she added hastily, trying to recover whatever she’d messed up. “Lee actually says I’m pretty capable, even though I’m fourteen, but that’s not _young_ –”

“Katara.”

She sighed. She’d blown it, she thought miserably to herself. Now Jet was just going to see her as a kid, as some silly little girl, like his baby sister, just like Sokka – stupid Sokka, he ruined _everything_.

As Jet turned her round to face him, she had to look up to meet his gaze.

“I _really_ don’t want to talk about Lee right now,” he whispered. Katara felt like she was _drowning_ in his eyes.

“Let’s not talk,” he continued. “Not right now.”

“Okay,” she whispered back, just before Jet kissed her.

Jet’s mouth was hot, and his teeth were sharp. As Katara learned for herself what a man tasted like, and what Jet’s chest and his stomach and his hair felt like under her hands, she learned that there were ways to understand someone without talking.


	23. Chapter 23

Aang had been a bit surprised when Jet had told him how Sokka had apologized for being kind of rude yesterday, but he’d been _really_ surprised when he’d suddenly found himself flying. He hadn’t even been airbending!

Jet had explained that it was called a _geyser_ , which had made a lot more sense. He’d been worried there was another forest spirit trying to get them – or that the Dark Water Spirit had decided to show up and throw him twenty feet in the air.

“Alright,” Jet said, standing by one of the geysers and folding his arms. “We’re here. Underground water's trying to escape through these vents. I need you guys to help it along.”

“I've never used bending on water I can't see,” Katara said, looking nervously at the steam. “I don’t know…”

“But you worked on sensing the water with Lee,” Aang reminded her. “And you did a super great job on that, remember? And it’s really hot water, too,” he added, trying not to wince as he rubbed at his butt. That geyser had been _fierce_.

Katara had still seemed a bit uncertain but Jet had stepped in. The Duke and Sneers had told Aang that Jet was a really great leader, and he could see it here.

“Katara,” he looked at her really seriously. “You can do this.”

She seemed to be reassured by that, and nodded. “I guess it’s about how I shift my weight through the stances.”

Jet looked down at her legs before he met her gaze again. “Right.”

Katara went a little red. Aang could understand – it was really hot in these springs!

Katara had told Aang that he needed to be able to reach out and let the water guide him, but Aang found it a bit easier to let the water come to him and let _him_ guide it. But he could see that Katara was feeling really good about how she was able to bend the water, especially when she had to reach out to where it was flowing underground, so he didn’t say anything. He remembered what Sokka had said about not trying to make Katara bend like an airbender, and he didn’t want to be like Monk Tashi, always trying to control Katara and make her do what he wanted to do. That would _suck_.

“Yes,” Jet nodded in approval. “Good job!”

Aang thought they were doing a pretty good job, too. That had taken a lot less time than he’d thought it would!

“This river empties into the reservoir,” Jet explained. “A few more geysers and it'll be full.”

Aang liked the sound of that – this was what the Avatar was supposed to be doing! He hadn’t been able to stop Senlin Forest from being burned down, but at least he’d been able to help Hei Bai see that it would grow back. Now, he could help Jet save this forest.

“You two keep it up,” Jet encouraged them. “I'll go check on things at the reservoir.”

“When we're done we'll meet you over there,” Katara told him. She kept brushing her hair behind her ear and fiddling with her hair loopies. It was _really_ hot with all the steam around – Aang had never been so glad that being an Air Nomad monk meant shaving your head.

It didn’t take as long to get the geysers flowing as Aang had thought it would, so he was really happy to finish up. He’d kind of been looking forward to having another game of tree-hopping with Sneers and The Duke, but Katara had wanted to go and catch up with Jet at the reservoir. Aang was pretty okay with that – he’d liked Jet, and he thought Jet would be pretty impressed with how quickly they’d finished. Maybe he’d enjoy Aang’s marbles trick! It was even cooler now he’d added the acorns.

He’d just stopped to pick up a few acorns from the forest floor when Katara asked what someone was doing in a confused voice.

Aang joined her in the clearing on the edge of the cliff. It was an amazing view, he had to admit. He could see Gaipan in the distance, and then there was a beautiful, clear river winding across the land. It led back all the way up to the reservoir dam, where a couple of people were unloading red barrels from a wagon.

No, wait – Monk Tashi said that ‘a couple’ of something meant three. Aang quickly recounted, but there were definitely _four_ people there. Tashi would have said four counted as ‘a whole bunch’, but Aang had thought there was only a couple of people. He guessed that was something else Tashi had been wrong about, but that was okay.

But he suddenly realized that they were unloading the blasting jelly Jet had got from the Fire Nation, and suddenly Tashi wasn’t the only person that had been wrong.

Aang had been wrong. He’d been very, very wrong.

“Jet’s going to blow up the dam!” He cried out.

“What?” Katara shook her head. “No, that would destroy the town. Jet wouldn't do that.”

Zuko had said that Jet didn’t like the Fire Nation. Sokka had told them about how Jet had beaten up an old man.

_Monkey-monkey-monkeyfeathers!_

“I’ve got to stop him!” Aang sprinted and took a leap with his glider, but he tumbled to the ground when something pulled him down.

_Jet!_

“Jet, _why?_ ” Katara begged.

“Katara, you would too if you just stopped to think.” Jet didn’t sound anything like he’d sounded back when they had been helping the water along. “Think about what the Fire Nation did to your mother. We can't let them do that to anyone else, ever again.”

“This isn’t the answer!” Katara shouted back.

“I want you to understand me, Katara,” Jet said in a soft voice. “I thought your brother would understand, but…”

Jet tried to reach out to her, but he had barely touched her cheek when Katara’s face contorted. She screamed, and suddenly Jet was flying backwards as she _pushed_ the water at him.

Aang suddenly realized that he’d been standing there for too long. He needed to get to the dam – but Jet had trapped his glider, and he couldn’t get it back!

“I'm not gonna fight you, Jet,” he tried. The monks had always taught him that violence wasn’t the answer.

But Jet wasn’t a monk, and he thought violence was the answer. “You'll have to if you want your glider back.”

Aang had to run away from Jet’s crazy attacks. He hadn’t expected his second time tree-hopping to be like this! This was more like what Zuko had called The Floor Is Lava, and Jet wasn’t just trying to push Aang out of the trees and make him hurt his ankle – he was trying to kill him!

Luckily for Aang, though, Katara was able to stop Jet and freeze him to a tree. She seemed super mad at Jet. Aang was kind of angry at Jet too – they’d trusted him, and he’d lied to them! But Katara seemed a whole different level of angry. It was kind of scary.

Aang heard a bird whistle, and then Jet whistled back. It distracted Katara from her rant. “What are you doing?”

“You’re too late,” Jet told her.

**_BOOM_ **

_Oh, no_.

Aang didn’t know what had happened to Zuko. But Sokka was still out there. He was their only chance.

…

Sokka had gotten up early to go down to Gaipan and try and find Zuko, but he’d ended up running into Jet and the others. When he’d realized what they’d been up to, a lot of things made a lot more sense.

As it turned out Sokka’s instincts were right, everyone else was wrong, and Jet was a total fucking _dick_. He hadn’t been planning on using the reservoir to save the forest – he’d been planning on using it to flood the town!

It was insane. When Sokka’s Dad had gone off to war, Sokka had wanted to know what he was going to be doing. He’d wanted to know all about what Dad was going to be doing. Was he going to be killing people from the Fire Nation? Was he gonna beat up firebenders?

Dad had gotten a really serious look in his eye. Yes, he’d said. He was probably going to beat up firebenders. He thought he needed to, if they were going to win the war. But he wasn’t going to be killing _anyone_ if he could help it. Dad couldn’t see death as anything other than a tragedy. People in the Fire Nation had mothers, and fathers, and children. He’d put his hand on Sokka’s shoulder then, and he’d asked Sokka, how could he kill another man’s son?

Jet didn’t care about the mothers and fathers and children living in Gaipan. Jet thought that showed he understood the demands of war. But Sokka knew that Jet knew _nothing_ about war.

Sokka’s Dad was fighting in the war. Jet was just fighting his own.

He had to warn them, he thought numbly. He had to warn Gaipan. But how was he supposed to warn them when Pipsqueak and Smellerbee were sticking to him like two especially sticky sticks?

“Come on,” Smellerbee ordered him. “Move along!”

Make that two especially annoying sticky sticks. They’d been moving Sokka along for about half an hour now, and he had _no_ idea where he was. Worse, he couldn’t understand what was happening.

“How can you stand by and do nothing while Jet wipes out a whole town?” He demanded.

“Hey,” Pipsqueak began. “Listen Sokka, Jet's a great leader. We follow what he says, and things always turn out okay.”

Sokka had always followed what his Dad had said, and things had always turned out okay. Jet was _nothing_ like his Dad. Heck, even when they’d followed Zuko’s idea and gone to Gaipan, things had been okay until Jet had gone crazy and attacked Zuko’s guy. So things hadn’t turned out okay like okay-okay, but Sokka had to admit, if he was going to follow someone, he’d definitely pick Zuko over Jet. At least Zuko’s plans didn’t involve mass murder.

He saw a set of snares over to his left, and a plan of his own clicked into his head.

“If that's how Jet leads, then he's got a lot to learn,” he told the two Freedom Fighters, before making a break to his left.

He heard Smellerbee yell out a _Hey!_ behind him, but he kept running. When he got to the snares, he jumped. He heard three yells as Smellerbee and Pipsqueak got trapped up in cages, and breathed a sigh of relief.

 _Wait a minute_.

Three yells?

Smellerbee… Pipsqueak…

“Sokka! I’m up here!”

“Zuko?” Sokka asked in disbelief, before remembering. “I mean, uh – Lee?”

He looked up to see Zuko trapped up in one of the cages, hanging in the air with the two Fighters.

“You can drop the name, Sokka,” Zuko called down. “It’s a bit late for that now. Sokka, you’ve gotta get me out of here!”

“Okay!” Sokka nodded. He took careful aim, and threw his boomerang. Just like on their first day, he managed to cut the rope. The bad news was that it sent Zuko crashing to the ground.

Zuko swore explosively – okay, maybe not the right turn of phrase, all things considered – but it seemed to have dented the metal enough for him to get free. Sokka hurried over to help him out. “You okay?”

Zuko groaned, and Sokka nodded. “Right, yeah – that’s, what, thirty feet? Come on,” he grabbed Zuko’s shoulders. “We’ve got to hurry!”

“What?”

“Jet’s going to blow up the dam!” Sokka yelled. “He’s going to flood the valley – come _on_ , we’ve got to warn the village!”

“I can’t,” Zuko gritted out. “Sokka, my leg –”

Sokka winced as he saw the bloody wound in Zuko’s leg. “How’d you manage that?”

“Longshot,” Zuko managed. “Sokka, you’ve got to warn them –”

“They’re not going to believe me,” Sokka protested. “Zuko, they’ll think I’m one of Jet’s thugs –”

“Go to that old guy. He’ll help you.”

“That old guy thinks I’m one of Jet’s thugs too!” Sokka shouted. _Slush_ , this was bad. “You’ve got to get _up!_ ”

“No,” Zuko gasped. “Sokka, I need you to _listen_.”

Something in the way he said it made Sokka shut up and pay attention. “Okay,” he nodded and tried to slow his breathing. “Okay.”

“Go to the old guy we met,” Zuko instructed him. “And tell him Lee the flower guy sent you.”

“Lee the flower guy?” Sokka repeated dumbly. “Buddy, did you hit your head when you fell?”

“Sokka!” Zuko gave him one of his grumpy glares. No, he seemed fine. “Lee – the flower guy. Trust me.”

Sokka was about to protest that _yet again_ , Zuko wasn’t telling him anything and was just expecting Sokka to go along with his mysterious plan without giving him _any_ indication of what Sokka should be expecting, but there was something in Zuko’s eyes that made him pause.

“Sokka,” Zuko’s voice was suddenly desperate. “If you don’t do this, hundreds of people are going to die. You’re all we’ve got, Sokka – _please_.”

Sokka’s Dad had told him to protect Katara. She was relying on him. The whole world was relying on him to keep the Avatar safe. And now innocent civilians were relying on him.

Sokka spared Zuko a single nod before he set off as fast as he could. He tore through the forest like he was being chased by a pack of wild polar bear dogs. Gaipan was where Sokka needed to be, and he was _not_ going to let Jet kill mothers, fathers, or children.

“Appa!” He yelled once the sky bison came into view. “Yip yip!”

He dived onto Appa as the sky bison took off.

“Come on,” he panted, patting the bison’s flank urgently. “Come on, Appa, come _on!_ ”

Appa seemed to sense his hurry, because he roared and put on another burst of speed. He managed to get to the village in time, but Sokka had to sprint towards the gate, where he was met by armed soldiers.

“What’s your name and business?” One of them asked in a threatening manner.

Sokka was bent over and wheezing, but _he was on a mission_.

“Lee,” he gasped out. “My name’s Lee – I’m a flower guy.” He sucked in air. “I’m here to speak to an old man who was in the forest yesterday. Please – it’s an emergency!”

…

When Appa set down for the night, Zuko needed Aang and Sokka’s help to hobble off the sky bison’s back.

Katara had done her best to bind it up, but she was used to fishhooks and the occasional light stab wound from a spear or a knife. Zuko had a bit more experience with injuries, but even as he’d tried to direct her, a massive arrow wound was a bit beyond them. It would take some time to heal.

Zuko hated that _prick_ Jet, and he wasn’t too fond of Longshot, either.

“Can I get you anything, Zuko?” Aang asked anxiously. “Like a blanket, or something? Or how about a fruit tart? If you want, I can go fly around and see if there’s a town nearby, I’ve got two copper pieces if you wanted me to buy you something? I mean, you might not want me to go to a town if it’s Fire Nation, like Gaipan, but we’re not in Gaipan right –”

“Aang,” he interrupted before the airbender ran out of air. “Can you go see if Katara needs help with dinner?”

Aang had looked relieved just to have something to _do_ , and he’d raced over to Katara, who was standing over a cooking pot.

“Thought he’d never leave,” Sokka muttered. “He seemed really worried about you.”

“I think today freaked him out,” Zuko agreed. “I hope he doesn’t get clingy.”

“I kind of hope he does. He can piss _you_ off for a change.”

Zuko turned to Sokka, but groaned as he felt his leg buckle beneath him. He sat down heavily on his bedroll. “ _Fuck_.”

“Don’t let Katara hear you say that,” Sokka warned him.

“I just got shot in the leg,” Zuko pointed out. “I think I’m owed a pass.”

“Maybe,” Sokka conceded. “But, uh, whilst Aang’s gone, and we’re talking about what you’re owed…”

Zuko felt a bit bemused as Sokka drew over an unfamiliar bag from his own pile. “Is this my birthday present?”

“What?” Sokka looked as confused as Zuko felt. “No, dude. Why? Is it your birthday?”

“Next week.”

“Oh. Shit, no, it’s – it’s just some stuff that old guy gave me. Said it was for Lee the flower guy.”

“Didn’t you say that you told him _you_ were Lee the flower guy?”

“Funnily enough, he didn’t believe me,” Sokka said. “He said he’d heard about Lee the flower guy, who was travelling with the Avatar, and he said I wasn’t grumpy and angry enough to be Lee, and I was way more manly.”

Zuko thought that was a bit of a dick thing to say to someone who’d just been shot in the leg. “Did he say anything else? Anything _useful?_ ”

Sokka grew serious. Wonders never ceased. “He said Zhao was moving north, and that your Uncle and crew have just sailed past Yu Dao.”

Zuko knew he shouldn’t have been disappointed, but he couldn’t help it. “That’s on the other side of Makapu. We won’t make it there in time to meet them.”

“I’m sorry, man,” Sokka said, and he did actually sound like he meant it. “I know you miss your Uncle.”

Zuko shook his head and turned his attention to opening the bag. “How come you had to wait until Aang was gone to give me this?”

Sokka snorted. “‘Cause when you gave me and Katara that stuff from the pirates, he was all, ‘Awesome! Presents for everyone!’. I’m not dumb enough to give myself extra work.”

Zuko checked through the bag. A white lotus tile, a few silver and gold coins, a box of jasmine tea, some medical supplies that would come in handy – probably sooner than the old man had expected – and…

“Dao swords?” He asked, drawing them out and examining them.

Sokka whistled. “Those look _nice_. How’d your Uncle know you’d lost your old pair?”

Zuko had long since given up on figuring out how Uncle just knew stuff. “Probably saw it in a spirit dream, or something.”

Sokka shuddered. “Don’t talk to me about spirit shit, man.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.”

Sokka rubbed his face tiredly. “Whatever. I’d give you shit, but you’ve been shot in the leg. So, like you said, you get a pass for tonight.”

“I appreciate that.”

“But it doesn’t mean I don’t want answers,” Sokka continued, giving Zuko a serious look. “You keep calling yourself _Lee_ , and this old guy in a Fire Nation village seems to know you. And you’re not _telling_ us anything. What’s going on?”

Zuko sighed. Sokka was right – he owed him an explanation. If he’d just told Sokka what was going on, instead of storming off when they’d had their argument, they might have been able to stop Jet before he’d blown up the dam.

Uncle had told him more times than he could count that there was nothing wrong with letting the people who loved him help him. He wasn’t sure his and Sokka’s relationship was _quite_ that close, but he didn’t have to do it all on his own.

“If people knew I was travelling with the Avatar,” he began. “It could put my Uncle in danger. Lee’s a pretty common name. Uncle knows it’s me, but when I keep sharing my name wherever Aang shows up, people start to realize that there’s this kid _Lee_ travelling with the Avatar. Then Uncle’s friends can keep track of us and help us out.”

Sokka nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense,” he allowed. “But why’d you pick _Lee?_ ”

“A couple of years ago, I was in this Earth Kingdom village,” Zuko explained. “This family was being picked on by some local bullies, and Uncle and I put a stop to it. Their younger son was called Lee, and –”

Zuko had seen him look at his big brother, and remembered the way he had looked up at Lu Ten.

He swallowed. “He reminded me of someone, so. Lee.”

“Dinner’s almost ready, guys!” Aang called over.

“Thanks, Aang!” Sokka called back, before he turned back to Zuko. “You’d better hide that stuff before Aang starts asking me where _his_ presents are.”

Zuko hastily stowed the sack with his bags. “Okay. Thanks for them, though.”

Sokka nodded. “Thank your old guy for getting them. And for listening, too. He saved pretty much everyone.”

“That was you,” Zuko disagreed. “You got there just in time.”

Sokka looked a bit proud of that. Zuko couldn’t blame him. “Yeah, I did.” His face quickly turned serious again, though. “But we wouldn’t have been in that situation if we’d known what was going on.”

Zuko looked down at his hands. “I should have told you guys about my plan.”

Otherwise, he was just like Jet, asking people to trust him without telling them why.

“I was talking about Jet,” Sokka corrected him, pulling a disgusted face. “Piece of shit.”

“What was that?” Katara asked as she came over with two bowls of food. Zuko winced – bad language was _not_ her thing.

“Jet,” Sokka repeated. “He’s a piece of shit.”

Katara looked down at her meal as Aang handed Zuko a bowl of his own.

“Yeah,” she said, stabbing at her rice with venom. “He’s a piece of shit.”


	24. Chapter 24

Zuko bit back a curse as he tested his weight on his leg. Aang had been able to go out and find some herbs in the woods that he could make into a poultice, and his recovery was coming along, but being shot in the leg with an arrow wasn’t a little deal.

He couldn’t walk around for any extended period of time, he couldn’t do anything around the campsite to help out, and he couldn’t get Sokka and Katara to stop bickering.

Although on reflection, that last point probably didn’t have anything to do with his injured leg; it might just have been a universal constant that big brothers and little sisters had their squabbles. Spirits knew that he’d had enough arguments with Azula over nothing. Zuko was just glad that Katara wasn’t throwing fireballs at Sokka’s head. Then again, she was a waterbender, and from the sounds of it she’d already spent most of their early years dropping cold water on him.

But even if his injury didn’t have anything to do with their quarrelling, he was still more than happy to be able to blame it on Jet.

Fucking _Jet_.

“Aren't you forgetting the tarp?” Katara asked, shifting her arms so she could better carry the firewood.

“Right,” Sokka mumbled, tossing the tarp into the tent. Zuko watched Katara’s eyes narrow from where he was resting against Appa and sighed.

“Sokka, you're supposed to put the tarp _on top_ of the tent. You know, so we don't get rained on?”

“Ordinarily, you'd be right,” Sokka retorted. “But seeing how it's the dry season, you're not. Besides that tarp makes a pretty warm blanket.”

“But what if it does rain?” Katara pointed out.

“What if it doesn't?” Sokka shook his head and huffed. “Then I would have put up the tarp for nothing!”

Katara let out an irritated sound. “You're _infuriating!_ ”

Uncle had always reminded Zuko that the Water Tribes were characterized by a deep sense of community and love that could hold them together through anything. But from what Zuko was watching right now, Sokka was only just holding on to his patience, and Katara had given up holding on to her firewood and had resorted to throwing some of the sticks at Sokka.

“Hey guys!”

Oh, thank goodness, the Avatar was back. Not the first time Zuko had thought those words to himself, but this was probably a bit smaller-scale than the first time.

“Okay, I got the grub if you guys got the – hey, where’s the campfire?” Aang’s eyes widened in confusion. “And what happened to the tent?”

As Sokka and Katara took turns playing the blame game, at least Aang seemed to get that harsh words wouldn’t solve anything. Zuko was about to suggest that Aang sort the tent out and let him light the campfire, but the Avatar had come up with a much easier solution.

“Why don't you just switch jobs?”

Zuko deflated. He _hated_ feeling useless.

“You see that?” Aang grinned at Zuko as he came over to feed Appa. “Settling feuds and making peace, all in a day's work for the Avatar.”

“I don’t know if healing wounds comes under that job description?” Zuko muttered, looking down at his left leg with distaste.

“Um…” Aang looked a bit awkward. “Sokka said this was one of those conversations that you shouldn’t have with people.”

“What?” Zuko frowned. “Is this like how Uncle told me you shouldn’t ever ask a woman if she’s pregnant?”

Aang nodded emphatically and cut off a slice of watermelon for Momo. “Right? I _told_ him that was a big deal – come on, Momo, that's fair,” he scolded the winged lemur. “Appa's got five stomachs!”

“So does Sokka,” Zuko quipped, but he wanted to get back to the point. “What conversation was he talking about?”

“Well, you remember when I was kind of rude when we left Omashu, and I asked you about your scar?”

Zuko could vaguely remember something about sticky buns before he’d gone and sat with Katara. He remembered their conversation about bending, mostly, but there must have been something to make him go and sit with her. “Sure.”

“Well, Sokka said I probably shouldn’t ask about it if you didn’t want to talk about it. But if you’re, like, wanting to talk about it…” Aang still looked a bit uncertain.

“Oh.” Zuko quickly shook his head. “No, I was – I was talking about my leg, Aang.”

“Oh, okay.” Aang’s expression morphed into one of relief. “No, that’s cool. But I don’t know how to make your leg better, Zuko. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Zuko tried to reassure him. “It’s not the end of the world, Aang. It’s coming on, it’s just – slow.”

“But if you wanted to talk about –” Aang looked like he was trying to point to his face without making it obvious that he was pointing to his face. “Like, we can if you want. But only if you want!” He added hastily. “Like, I don’t want to ask about it, because Sokka said it was rude, and I don’t want you to think I’m assuming, like if you were pregnant or something –”

“ _Aang_ ,” Zuko interrupted, and thankfully Aang listened.

Zuko had never talked about his scar. Not with Jee, not with Ensign Takahashi – not even with Uncle. The ship’s doctor had told him that he was lucky to have kept his hearing and escaped with only slight damage to his periphery vision. Zuko had stopped listening after he had said he was _lucky_. As if he was lucky to have come out of it a dishonored exile with a ruined face.

All he had heard was his father’s voice telling him he was _lucky to be born_.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

If possible, Aang looked even more relieved. “Okay. Did you… want to talk about something else?”

Zuko dragged his hood up over his head and settled back on Appa. “Show me how you’re doing with your marbles.”

Zuko had originally intended to use the marbles and acorns as a similar exercise to the ones Uncle Iroh occasionally indulged in – it had always slightly irritated Zuko to see Uncle juggling little balls of flame, sometimes adding bigger ones in for effect or variety. He couldn’t deny the necessity of developing closer control over multiple flames at different intensities; he just thought it was a dumb way of going about developing that control.

Something had told him that Aang would appreciate it, though, and he wasn’t surprised to be prove right. Aang had even gotten confident enough to try different things, winding his acorns and marbles in a stream like he did his waterbending and adding a few pebbles in for even more variety. When he tried walking backwards whilst bending, though, that seemed to be a step too far. He grinned sheepishly at Zuko as the pebbles clattered to the ground.

“Something to practice,” Zuko said.

Aang huffed. “Oh, come _on_ , Hotman.”

“Don’t call me that!”

…

As far as Sokka could see, the Great Divide was just a bunch of stupid rocks. And those stupid rocks went on as far as he could see. He didn’t understand what Katara was so impressed by.

But, then again, he hadn’t understood what Katara had seen in Jet to impress her so much, even _before_ he’d turned out to be a crazy thug who wanted to kill innocent people. He wanted to be able to talk to her about it, but the way she was acting towards him lately, he didn’t really want to try for that talk right about now. She would probably end up water-whipping him in the face, and whilst it had been annoying when she had been doing it accidentally, Sokka had no doubt it would be even _more_ aggravating now that she knew how to do it on _purpose_.

But Sokka had noticed that Katara hadn’t really been practicing her bending the past few days. It was weird – as long as he could remember, Katara had _always_ been practicing her waterbending. Even when practicing had just been pushing water back and forth, Katara had _always_ been bending, and now that she’d started that weird meditation thing with Zuko and learnt how to control water with her _mind_ (give him a break, he wasn’t a bender, he didn’t know all the technical terms), Sokka would have thought she’d be all over that.

But it might have been because Zuko was injured and she wanted to give him space, or whatever, but Katara wasn’t joining him for his morning meditations anymore. Sokka knew that because now _he_ was getting up before Katara in the mornings. She’d been willing to get up early in the morning for that stuff, so it must have been important – and now it just _wasn’t_.

If he was getting up before Katara, either they were having their bodies swapped, or something was up with his baby sister. And whilst Sokka had seen enough freaky spirit magic in the past few months not to discount that first option, if there was a possibility something was up with his sister, Sokka was _not_ going to let it slide.

But she didn’t seem to want to talk to him, no matter how often he tried to talk to her. Sokka would have been offended if he wasn’t so worried. Didn’t Katara know how valuable his time was? Now that he and Zuko were planning the next steps on their journey, he didn’t have all the time in the world to have conversations about feelings!

Still, they were here now. Sokka had been just about to try and ask Katara who’d spit in her five-flavor soup when some jerk barged right past him and started blathering on about how he’d made an express reservation for a canyon guide. _Whatever_ , pal. Sokka could do a tour of the Great Divide, _easy_.

See that? Rocks. Over there? More rocks. We hope you enjoyed your tour! Have a great day!

But then it turned out that this guy was trying to get the canyon guide to actually lead them through the canyon, not just point out the slightly more interesting rocks. Yeah, Sokka wasn’t sure he could do _that_. If he’d had a map, sure, but he didn’t.

“You ever gone through the Great Divide?” He asked Zuko.

The other boy shook his head. “First time.”

“I think I’d be cool with _not_ going through it,” Sokka muttered.

“Same,” Zuko agreed.

Sokka and Zuko shared a meaningful look and a nod, indicating that each party saw and acknowledged the other’s legitimate disdain for this stupid land formation. It felt Manly in a way Sokka couldn’t quite describe.

But when this other Zhang tribe turned up as well and started arguing with this Gan Jin dude about who got to go across the canyon with the guide first, Sokka got the sinking feeling that they really _were_ going to end up going through the valley.

His first question was: _Why, spirits, why?_

His second question was: _Who are we going along with?_

His third question wasn’t a question, more of a silent promise to himself and the universe. _If we have to come back and do a second trip with whatever tribe ends up left behind this time, I swear to Tui that I’m going to spend the entire second journey walking behind Aang and kicking his bony airbender butt_.

Thankfully, though, Aang had an idea. “All right, here's the deal. You're all going down together, and Appa here will fly your sick and elderly across! Does that seem fair?”

That worked for Sokka. He still wasn’t totally sure on how spiritually attuned Aang was – he still remembered being kidnapped by a spirit – but it looked like the Avatar could pick up on Sokka’s threatening thoughts as they interacted with the cosmic energy in the universe. That was an encouraging sign, at least.

As their group and the two tribes prepared for their long journey, Sokka eyed up Zuko’s heavily-strapped leg.

“Are you sure you’re okay to walk on that?” He asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Zuko replied.

Sokka was unconvinced, and when Zuko took a few steps forward only to visibly wince, he shook his head and turned to Aang.

“We’re gonna have to put him on Appa,” he said bluntly.

“I’m _fine_ , Sokka,” Zuko snapped. “I just need to walk it off –”

His leg almost buckled, and Sokka and Aang moved forward, but he managed to catch himself.

“See?” He panted. “Fine.”

“You are _not_ fine!” Katara scolded him, crouching down to check on his bandages. “You’re going to reopen your wound if you’re not careful!”

“Katara, really, I’ve had a lot worse –”

“This one time, his sister pushed him into lava and he fractured his ankle,” Aang chimed in.

Katara’s head shot up, and she narrowly avoided headbutting Zuko in the crotch. Sokka winced in sympathy. That could have been _nasty_.

“ _What?_ ” She demanded, shifting so she could look up at Zuko from between his legs.

Zuko seemed extremely uncomfortable with Katara being so close to him, and Sokka couldn’t blame him. She looked _mad_. At least she wasn’t wielding a frying pan this time. Well, she didn’t have a pan, but she _did_ have a water whip that she was getting worryingly accurate with, and Sokka thought that might actually be worse.

“It wasn’t _actual_ lava,” Zuko insisted, taking Katara by the shoulders and removing her from his personal space. Sokka breathed a sigh of relief; Zuko was already injured, he didn’t need a water whip to the face. “It was just a game we played where we _pretended_ the floor was lava.”

“Can we pretend that now?” Sokka asked, looking at the huge-ass canyon.

Aang shook his head. “Sorry, Sokka. I think we need to help these two tribes. Making peace between people is kind of the Avatar’s job.”

Sokka groaned. “Your job's gonna make us cross this whole canyon on foot, isn't it?”

He was _definitely_ going to give Aang a kick up his bony butt.

…

The canyon guide had told them that the canyon was most likely carved into the ground by earth spirits who were angry at local farmers for not offering them a proper sacrifice, and Aang could definitely believe it. Something had kept hitting him in the butt when they were crossing the canyon, and whenever he’d turned around, the only person near him was Sokka.

Sokka had said he hadn’t seen anyone, so Aang was sure it _must_ have been the spirits. And when the canyon crawlers had burst out of the walls and hurt the guide and broken his arms so he couldn’t earthbend, the earth spirits must _really_ have been mad at their group, because Aang’s butt was _still_ smarting from the almighty whack he’d felt after that.

Even after Aang had tried to take charge and split the Gan Jins and the Zhangs into two different groups and sent Katara and Sokka off to try to find out what was making them so _mad_ at each other, the spirits had kept trying to mess with him. But at least they must have seen that he was trying his best, because they had stopped whacking him in the butt and started hitting him with little stones and pebbles instead. It had been really annoying, but it had definitely hurt less than the whacking.

Sadly, though, Katara and Sokka hadn’t been able to get the two tribes to become friends by the time they’d stopped to make camp for the night, so Aang sadly acknowledged that it looked like he had another day of annoyed spirits to deal with tomorrow. He couldn’t even go and sit round one of the campfires with them and ask them about what life was like in their tribe, because then it would look like he was picking favorites.

At least Zuko could keep them both warm with his firebending, Aang acknowledged happily.

“So how did you and Appa enjoy the Great Divide?” He asked.

“It was okay,” Zuko replied. “I managed to sew up the arrow hole in my pant leg, so at least it was productive.”

“Cool, cool,” Aang nodded. He didn’t really want to think too hard about Gaipan. “And did you have a good time travelling with sick and old people?”

Zuko rolled his eyes. “I’m used to travelling with Uncle Iroh. They didn’t bother me.”

“I guess your Uncle’s pretty old,” Aang conceded. “What about sick people, though?”

Zuko’s unimpressed face looked even more unimpressed at that. “This one time, Uncle poisoned himself because he tried to make tea from some plant he found in the woods.”

“Ew,” Aang stuck his tongue out. “Why would you _do_ that?”

“He thought it was some other plant,” Zuko explained. “He got rashes all over, but we managed to get to a hospital. He pulled through.”

“Was this back in the Fire Nation?” Aang asked. “Or when you were travelling through the Earth Kingdom?”

“Earth Kingdom,” Zuko said. He looked a bit sad in the firelight. “We had to use fake names.” His face lightened and he let out a chuckle. “I said his name was Mushi.”

Aang laughed along with him. “That’s a really dumb name.”

“Yeah,” he acknowledged. “The lady who helped us was called Song. Her mom invited us to dinner. We had some roast duck.”

Aang had heard good things about roast duck, but he was pretty happy being vegetarian. The monks had said that one who eats meat kills the seed of great compassion.

That sounds really nice of them,” he said. “Did your Uncle end up getting some actual tea that time, or did he accidentally poison himself again?”

Zuko smiled fondly and shook his head. “No, he just ended up flirting with Song’s mom. I had to get out of there before I threw up.”

“That would probably have been awkward,” Aang said. “If you threw up straight after eating. She’d probably have thought you didn’t like her cooking.”

“Well, Uncle always wanted me to try and make roast duck after that, and I could never get it right. Her cooking was pretty good by comparison.”

“I’m pretty sure _my_ cooking’s pretty good compared to yours.”

“You burned _soup_ , Aang.”

“You weren’t even there for that!” Aang protested.

Zuko looked down and sighed, and the flames in his hand dimmed a little bit. “When I was sitting out on the porch, Song came and sat with me. She showed me how she’d been… we talked about the war. It was hard.”

“It was hard for you to talk about?” Aang asked. “That’s okay – we don’t have to talk about it.”

After Zuko hadn’t wanted to talk about his scar earlier, Aang thought he was getting pretty good at not talking about what Zuko didn’t want to talk about.

“No, it was more… seeing how the Fire Nation has hurt so many people. How the war’s hurt so many people.” Zuko shook his head. “We have to stop the fighting.”

“I don’t know how we’re supposed to do that,” Aang looked over to the first campsite, then the other. From this far away, he couldn’t figure out which tribe was which. “I can’t even stop the Gan Jins and the Zhangs from fighting.”

“You’re the Avatar,” Zuko reminded him. “It’s kind of your job. There’s no reason you can’t do it, so… you can do it. Maybe you just haven’t figured out how yet.”

Yeah, Aang decided. That made sense. Just like when he was trying to figure out how to deal with the Spirit World. He’d wanted to talk to Avatar Roku, so he’d just… done it.

“Maybe once your Uncle’s figured out how he can make tea from random plants, you guys could have some cool tea with that duck you’re trying to make,” he said to Zuko.

“I think the last time I had duck was my birthday,” Zuko said thoughtfully. “Crazy how it’s already been a year.”

“What?” Aang must have misheard him. “It’s your birthday?”

“Well, not yet,” Zuko amended. “In a couple days’ time.”

Aang looked down at Zuko’s bandaged leg. When the Air Nomads had their big equinox celebration at the Southern Air Temple, they’d always had a huge airball tournament. It would have sucked if Zuko had been an airbender but he wouldn’t have been able to join in with the games on his birthday.

“We’ll have to do something fun,” he decided.

“You always say I suck at fun.”

“You do suck at fun,” Aang agreed. “But that’s ‘cause you’re a grumpy fifteen-year-old. When you’re sixteen, you can be fun.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to get grumpier as you get older.”

“I’m pretty sure you were born old, then,” Aang teased. “Besides, have you met Bumi?”

“Don’t remind me,” Zuko scowled. “I still need to kick that guy’s ass.”

“I don’t think the earth spirits would like it if you tried kicking an earthbender’s – um, butt.” Katara wasn’t around, but Aang thought she might still be able to hear him. “Besides, I’m pretty sure they’ve been kicking _my_ butt today. I don’t get why, though.”

Zuko looked like he was about to say something, but he stopped. Then something really weird happened – he laughed out loud!

“Keep an eye on Sokka tomorrow,” Zuko advised him once he’d finished laughing. “I think you’ll get it.”

Aang nodded – that made sense. Sokka _had_ been to the Spirit World. If anyone could help him figure it out, Sokka could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘One who eats meat kills the seed of great compassion’ is a quote attributed to [the Buddha](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha#Mah%C4%81parinirv%C4%81%E1%B9%87a_S%C5%ABtra_\(or_Nirvana_Sutra\)), found in the _Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra_ , a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
> 
> I wrote about the time Zuko and Uncle met Song and her mother in [Chapter Two](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29029698/chapters/71251536#workskin) of my prequel fic, 'The Blue Spirit: Year One'.


	25. Chapter 25

Sokka was relieved to hear the canyon guide announce that they were almost to the other side. He was pretty sure his blisters had blisters by this point. Plus, he couldn’t wait to get out of here and leave these two dumb tribes behind. _Especially_ the Gan Jin. Sokka hadn’t been able to believe the story when the Zhangs had told him how the Gan Jin had screwed the Zhangs over.

Wei Jin had just been trying to return the Gan Jin’s sacred orb to Jin Wei, and then when he’d crossed the border to return the orb into Gan Jin territory, the Gan Jin had only gone and arrested him! They should have been _thanking_ him for his kind and selfless deed, but instead, they’d sentenced him to twenty years in prison!

But clearly the guilty Gan Jin felt guilty about their guilt, and had lied to cover it up. They’d told Katara that the Zhangs had They ambushed Jin Wei and stolen the sacred orb. Totally ridiculous!

Aang had tried to sort it out, but the two tribes hadn’t wanted to get along (although, for the record, Sokka wanted to point out that the Gan Jin leader had started it, with that jibe about long, disgusting fingernails). The arguing had looked like it had been about to come to a straight-up fight to the death when Aang had stepped in and separated the leaders with a strong gust of air.

Turned out _both_ tribes were guilty liars who were trying to cover up their guilt with lies!

“Is that… food?” Aang asked in disbelief. “ _Everyone_ smuggled food down here?” He turned to the leaders, who both looked like they’d been caught sneaking kale cookies out of the jar. “Unbelievable! You guys put our lives in danger because you couldn't go without a snack for a day? You're all awful!”

“Aang!” Zuko yelled down from Appa. “Look out!”

“Oh no,” Katara murmured. “That's a lot of canyon crawlers.”

“We barely survived _one_ ,” Sokka agreed, taking out his boomerang. Katara had helped him out by hitting that last one with a water whip when it had been coming after him, but then when it had turned its attention to her, she’d been in real danger. Sokka _had_ to make sure Katara got out okay. Even if they were fighting, she was still his kid sister.

“Sokka, wait!” Katara grabbed him before he could charge the crawlers. “I don't care about this stupid feud. I just want us to get out of here alive.”

Sokka wanted to talk to Katara about how she was doing, but they didn’t have time for that. Hopefully, they’d be able to talk about what had been going on with her after they’d left Gaipan. But right now? They had to figure out a way to get out of the canyon.

“Me too,” he said. But he also had a confession to make. “I only took their side 'cause they fed me.”

Katara rolled her eyes at him, but she set off with him to try and help. It was hard going – there were, like, _dozens_ of the things. Sokka had found little beetles in his sleeping bag before, and it had been _disgusting_. He was going to be having nightmares for _weeks_ after this, he just knew it!

“Everybody,” Aang yelled, trying to get the group’s attention. “Watch me and do what I do!”

Sokka watched on as Aang distracted the crawler with some food, before using his airbending to jump onto its back and charge off towards the edge of the canyon. Sokka caught Katara’s eye and they teamed up, working together to help each other. Water Tribe, _boo-yah!_

“We made it,” Sokka whispered, kissing the top of the cliff once they’d made it out. “Oh, sweet, _sweet_ flat earth – I’ll never think crazy rock formations are prettier than you again…”

“I never thought a Gan Jin could get his hands dirty like that,” the Zhangs’ leader said approvingly.

“And I never knew you Zhangs were so reliable in a pinch,” The Gan Jin guy said right back.

“Perhaps we're not so different after all.”

Aang had looked really happy that everyone was getting along, but Sokka wasn’t all that surprised when the arguments broke out again. Seemed like arguments were the theme of the day. He was actually pretty glad that Zuko was stuck up on Appa, out of the way; Zuko was grumpy and angry enough that he’d probably just blow up at someone and make everyone join up against him.

Speaking of complete dickheads who were distasteful enough to make unlikely allies out of people who previously been at odds, Sokka wondered if he should tell the Zhang tribe and the Gan Jin tribe about this total _prick_ who’d lived in a treehouse.

“Hey, guys,” he began. “So I knew this guy, right –”

“Wait a second,” Aang interrupted. “Jin Wei? Wei Jin? I know those guys!“

Sokka was a bit offended that Aang was butting in. Sokka was about to bring _peace_ where once there had been _division_. “Uh, Aang?”

“We're all aware of the story,” the Gan Jin dude said to Aang. Again, Sokka was completely ignored.

“ _Whatever_ ,” he muttered, throwing his hands in the air.

“No,” Aang shook his head. “I mean, I really knew them. I might not look it, but I'm a hundred and twelve years old.”

Aang went on to tell some story about some weird game where you had to score by putting a ball through a goal, and you couldn’t go outside the boundaries of the playing arena. Sounded _weird_ to Sokka, but maybe that was some Earth Kingdom game.

“There was no stealing and no putting anyone in prison,” Aang concluded. “It was just a game.”

“You're saying the sacred orb was actually a sacred ball?” The Zhang leader asked dubiously.

“Nope,” Aang shook his head. “Just a regular ball.”

“What about our tribe's redemption ritual?” The Gan Jin leader demanded.

“That's what the game was called,” Aang explained. “Redemption!”

Aang talked for a bit about how although the two brothers Jin Wei and Wei Jin were very different, they’d still respected each other's differences enough to share the same playing field. It was all very nice and happy… which was why Sokka was totally unsurprised to hear that it was all _bullshit_.

Zuko looked pretty dumbfounded, but Sokka had seen it coming a mile off, really. Couldn’t fool him.

“ _What?_ ” He demanded.

Aang shrugged. “I made the whole thing up.”

“You did _not_ ,” Katara stood open-mouthed for a moment, before smirking. “That is _so_ wrong.”

“Aang,” Zuko began. “When we talked about figuring out how to get them to stop fighting, that… wasn’t _quite_ what I meant.”

“Hey,” Sokka shrugged. “It worked! If it's in the name of keeping balance, I'm pretty sure the universe will forgive him.”

Aang grinned. “Now, where’s that custard tart? I'm starving!”

…

Custard tart had never tasted so _good_ , Aang decided happily as he munched on the delicious, gooey yellow goodness.

Aang had been _starving_ for, like, two whole days in the Great Divide. He’d had to watch Momo eat a ton of lychee nuts, but Sokka and Katara had been eating the whole time! Well, not the _whole_ time, because he’d been keeping an eye on Sokka like Zuko had told him to, and Sokka hadn’t been eating then. And just like Zuko had said, the spirits hadn’t bothered him all day!

Zuko just knew stuff, Aang thought to himself.

Now, though, he wanted to get back all the opportunities he’d missed. He was eating as much rice, vegetables, lentils, fruit pastries, nuts and berries as he could. So was Sokka, which Aang thought was kind of unfair, considering he’d been eating with the Zhang tribe the whole time, but he guessed that was just how Sokka was.

Sokka had said he was a growing boy, but Zuko had said he was only growing _fat_ , which had made Aang laugh. It had made Sokka laugh, too, which was good. It was really cool that he and Zuko seemed to be real friends now, not just _we’re travelling together but I want to kill you because you’re a firebender_ friends. Which didn’t really count as friends at all, now that Aang thought about it.

Zuko was happily eating too, but Aang figured that was because he needed to get his strength back after being shot with an arrow. That must have really hurt! He felt a lot of sympathy for Zuko because of that, even though Zuko had been a bit weird about Aang lying to get the Zhangs and the Gan Jins to get along.

But that was Aang’s _job_ , as Zuko himself had pointed out. There wasn’t any reason Aang couldn’t lie to get them to get along, right? So… he could just do it.

Zuko had agreed that even though Aang had _technically_ done what Zuko had encouraged him to do, Zuko had never encouraged him to lie, and he never would. Aang had argued back and reminded him that making peace was the Avatar’s job, and he wouldn’t have been able to get them to get along if he hadn’t lied, so why was Zuko mad about him doing what needed to be done?

But when Aang had said this, pretty much _everyone_ had been a bit unhappy about this. Even Katara had stood up and yelled at him. She’d said that lying to someone to get your own way wasn’t brave, it wasn’t right, and you should never lie to someone you said you cared about. Then, she’d stomped off and sat on the other side of the campfire. Sokka had gone to talk to her, but she’d yelled at him to leave her alone in a voice that really needed a few exclamation marks after it.

Sokka had been a bit offended at that, but Zuko had taken him aside and told him that maybe Katara needed some time to herself. He’d said that when he had been mad about something, his Uncle had just let him grumble about it until he was ready to talk about it.

“How did he know when you were ready to talk to him about it?” Aang asked. He didn’t like the way Katara was being super harsh to Sokka, especially after he’d tried to be nice to her.

“When I talked to him about it,” Zuko replied.

Aang sighed. “Should I go and talk to her about it?”

Zuko shrugged. “I don’t know. You can try, I guess.”

Okay, so maybe Aang had misunderstood Zuko’s advice about how to make the Zhangs and the Gan Jins get along. But the advice itself had been pretty good! And Zuko had been right about how to talk to Hei Bai and Avatar Roku, and it sounded like he’d given Katara some good advice about her waterbending. If Zuko thought he should try and talk to Katara, he’d give it a go.

“Hey, Katara,” he said as he sat down next to her.

“Hey, Aang.” She gave him a smile, but it looked a bit tired. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he gave her a smile of his own. “I’m really good! We got the Gan Jins and the Zhangs to get along, didn’t we?”

“I guess so,” Katara agreed, but she still didn’t look too happy about it.

“And I know you don’t like me lying, Katara,” Aang continued, trying to show her that he understood. “Zuko said that if there wasn’t any reason I _couldn’t_ do something, there wasn’t any reason I _shouldn’t_ be able to do it. But now I get that there’s a reason I shouldn’t lie, so I won’t do it anymore.”

“Thanks, Aang,” Katara said. She looked a little happier now, but when she looked down, she was back to frowning. It was probably because she was still mad with Sokka.

Aang wanted her to get along with Sokka again, so he tried to talk to her about how she’d yelled at Sokka. He remembered how the monks had said that a person should try to be truthful and kind when they talk. That made him feel a little embarrassed, because he hadn’t tried to be truthful when he’d talked to the two tribes – but he told Katara that the monks would have wanted her to be kind to Sokka when she talked to him.

“Okay, Aang,” she had said. “I’ll try to be nicer to Sokka. I know you don’t like it when we fight.”

Aang didn’t like it when Katara and Sokka were mad at each other because it made Katara unhappy. He wanted to tell her that he liked it more when she was happy than he didn’t like it when she was unhappy, but that sounded really complicated and he didn’t know how to explain it.

“Thanks, Katara,” he said instead. “I’m really glad you understood what I was trying to say.”

“That’s okay, Aang.” Katara smiled and reached out to rub at his arrow tattoo, which made him laugh. It felt really weird when she splayed her fingers out on his head! Her hands felt kind of cold. Was this how Sokka felt when Aang woke him up in the morning with his cold current?

Suddenly, Aang had a _really_ great idea.

“Katara?” He asked. “How do you feel about doing something really fun for Zuko’s birthday in a couple of days’ time?”

Katara hadn’t known Zuko’s birthday was coming up, but that was okay. He’d only found out when they had been talking in the Great Divide last night, and he was pretty sure Sokka still didn’t know. He’d have to talk to Sokka about it later.

But Katara had seemed happy to help Aang do something really fun for Zuko’s birthday, and when he’d told her what it was, she’d even smiled at him.

“You’re right, Aang. That _does_ sound fun.”

…

Katara had been so thrilled with how her waterbending had been coming on – first when she’d been able to pull off the water whip, and then when she’d been able to bend the water in the bowl in the morning with Zuko. She’d never been able to bend water she couldn’t see before!

But then she remembered how she had bent the underground water for Jet, and how he had wanted to use it to wipe out the town.

Katara couldn’t understand how she’d been so _wrong_ about Jet. He’d been handsome, and charming, and she’d let herself get caught up in daydreams and swept along by the rush of a tall, handsome boy. She’d thought he was _brave_.

But Sokka had been right. Jet had just been a thug.

“Hey, Katara?” Sokka waved a stick of jerky at her. “You wanna share?”

“I’m _fine_ , Sokka,” she wrapped her arms around her knees and glared at the fire. After a couple of days in the canyons, where food had caused so much trouble, she’d kind of lost her appetite. “I’m not hungry.”

Katara saw Sokka and Zuko exchange a glance, and Sokka shrugged and went over to hang out with Aang, who was practicing with his acorns. He gave Zuko another significant look as he sat down.

 _Great_ , she thought sourly to herself. _Guess the boys are getting along_.

Sokka and Zuko had gotten a lot closer since Gaipan. As it turned out, saving a town from being wiped out did wonders for bonding. Meanwhile, Katara and Aang had been the ones who had nearly wiped out Gaipan. She didn’t want to bond over something like that.

“Katara?”

“What?” Maybe if she kept her answers short, he’d leave her alone.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m _fine_ , Zuko.”

But Zuko didn’t give up. That was something she was learning about him. It would have been admirable if it wasn’t so _aggravating_. “That’s cool. I can talk, if you want. Or, um, it’s cool if you don’t want me to. Like Senlin. It’s just – you’ve just been, um. Sort of different, since Gaipan.”

She couldn’t help the memory that flashed across her mind, of running her hands through long, dark hair and feeling Jet’s warm hands on her skin.

“You mean since Jet,” she inferred bitterly. Of course. Sokka had probably told him all his stupid theories – they’d probably bonded over talking about her. Silly little Katara, who liked a boy and lost her head, who almost ruined everything because she _liked a boy_.

Katara might have been Water, but she _hated_ being shallow.

“I just meant since Gaipan, because – it’s, like, a place,” Zuko mumbled. “But, um. Yeah. Did – did you mean Jet? ”

“It just hurt.” The words came out unbidden. “I thought he cared, but he really only cared about my waterbending.”

She’d thought he’d understood her. She’d thought she’d understood him. But Jet had tried to make her understand, and he’d tried to touch her face, like he’d done the night before, when he’d – when they’d…

“He said he thought I’d understand,” she confessed. “He’d thought _Sokka_ would understand, but – I was so worried about him, when Jet said that. And he was just using me to help him get what he wanted.”

“I’m sorry,” Zuko said. “I’ve… I know people like that. They’re not good people, Katara. I’m sorry.”

He sounded sincere, but then… _Jet_ had sounded sincere.

Katara tried to make her rage turn _cold_. “I don’t even know _why_ I was bending. I know why Jet wanted me to bend, but – but Jet wanted to hurt people. He didn’t even care about hurting my _brother_.”

She hated to admit that she hadn’t been worried about Zuko, even when she’d thought he was still in Gaipan when the dam had burst. She didn’t know if that was because she didn’t _care_ , or because she’d thought he could take care of himself. She wasn’t sure she _wanted_ to know.

Katara didn’t understand.

“Uncle told me that the Water Tribes have a deep love of family.”

Her confusion made her lash out. “If that’s something the Fire Nation only associates with the Water Tribes, I don’t know what that says about your country.”

But she regretted it as soon as she said it. From what Zuko had said about his Uncle in the past, she didn’t want to be cruel to him. And he had seemed nice when they’d shared tea in Omashu. He’d made her jasmine tea and taught her to play Pai Sho.

“Sorry,” she said quietly.

“It’s okay,” Zuko said just as softly. “I know my country’s not – yeah.”

“I just – nothing. Keep talking.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m fine.” She _would_ be fine. She wasn’t going to fall to pieces. Not again. “Your Uncle told you the Water Tribes care about family.”

“It’s just – the people of the Fire Nation have desire and will. Fire’s the element of power – it needs to be fueled by powerful emotions. I fueled my bending with a _goal_. It gave me the energy to achieve what I wanted.” He swallowed. “But when I was fourteen, I… I lost my bending.”

Katara thought she’d misheard Zuko. He’d _lost_ his bending. “Like – you couldn’t _bend_ anymore?”

She couldn’t imagine anything worse happening to her. Her mother had – because she was a bender – if she wasn’t a bender anymore, than her _Mom_ –

Zuko nodded curtly. “I’d realized that… my goal wasn’t really what I wanted. It was what someone else wanted, and I was just trying to please them. When I realized that, I had to let it go.”

Katara had thought she had wanted to help save the forest. But, really? She’d just been trying to please Jet. “How did you move past that?”

“I had to find a new goal for myself.”

“What’s that?”

“Doing the right thing.”

“I thought I _was_ doing that,” she hung her head. “But apparently I was wrong.”

“Me too,” Zuko said quietly. “But you – you used that water whip to help stop that crawler going after Sokka.”

“I wasn’t going to let it hurt him.”

“Right,” Zuko nodded. “Family’s important.”

“My Gran-Gran said it’s what holds us all together,” Katara shared. “Through anything.”

“Maybe that’s what can drive you,” Zuko offered. “When you bend. _Why_ you bend. Protecting your family, it’s – it’s a good goal. Better than Jet’s, anyway.”

 _Protecting her family_.

Katara moved her hand to her neck, but when she tried to touch her mother’s necklace, she only felt her skin.

“You, um – you keep doing that.”

Zuko was looking at her with his golden eyes, and she wrenched her hand away and held it tightly in her lap. “It’s nothing.”

“You, um. You had a blue necklace, right? When I met you?”

“It was my mother’s,” she managed. “But it’s gone, now.”

“Oh. I’m – it must have been important to you.”

“It was,” she whispered. “I’m – I think I’m going to go to bed now.”

“Oh,” Zuko looked a bit surprised as she got to her feet. “Do you – are you tired? I can get you some tea, if you want –”

“No,” she shook her head. “No, I – I just want to go to sleep.”

As she turned around and headed for her tent, she might have felt a bit guilty about leaving so abruptly. Zuko had only been trying to help, but – but Zuko was from the _Fire Nation_ , and it was the Fire Nation had taken her mother from her, and it was her _mother’s necklace_ –

She couldn’t talk about it with Zuko, she thought miserably, as she muffled her sobs and hid her tears in her pillow. He wouldn’t _understand_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took inspiration for Aang's memory, where the monks told him that a person should try to be truthful and kind when they talk, from the Buddhist principle of '[right speech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path#Right_speech)'.


	26. Chapter 26

“So it’ll take… four days to reach Makapu?”

“Yeah,” Zuko agreed. “But we’ve only got three days’ supplies.”

Sokka frowned. That didn’t sound too good. “You’re sure?”

“Just checked,” he confirmed.

That was annoying. “So we’ll need to stock up,” Sokka summarized. “Guess Aang ate a bit more after the canyon than we thought.”

“Aang?” Zuko asked. Sokka was getting good at hearing the humor in his words now. “You sure you’ve got the right guy?”

“Apologies, jerkbender,” Sokka drawled. “Clearly I was confused. Yeah, I guess that guy _Lee_ ate a bit more after the canyon –”

“Fuck off,” Zuko grumbled, and Sokka took it as a victory. When Zuko stopped snarking and fell back on swearing, it tended to mean that he was out of comebacks.

He watched Zuko lean back and tip his head back. Sokka still didn’t get that whole _connecting to his element_ thing, but he enjoyed a nice day as much as the next guy. You didn’t get too many of them in winter, so he just took a moment to take it easy, soak up the warmth, and relax.

“You guys look like you’re having fun,” Katara observed as she stepped into the camp.

“No, Hotman doesn’t do fun,” Aang joined her. “Are you guys meditating?”

“Not meditating, Aang,” Sokka told him. He often had to explain Manly things to Aang, and he figured leading came under that. “Planning.”

“Oh, cool. Have you figured out where we’re going next?”

“Makapu, Aang,” Zuko reminded him.

“But that’s only, like, the first stop on the schedule. Where are we going after _that?_ ”

“We’re heading up from Makapu to a camp a couple of miles outside a Fire Nation village,” Sokka explained. “Zuko says it was set up by a bunch of soldiers who deserted the Fire Nation army – they’ll be able to give us shelter and supplies for when we head further north.”

Katara folded her arms. “I don’t think we should be going to any camps near the Fire Nation.”

Sokka remembered how the last time they’d gone to a camp near a Fire Nation village had been Gaipan. Oops.

“I think we should be okay,” he tried to reassure her. “It’s the northernmost place we can stop off before we make for the North Pole.”

“Except the Northern Air Temple.”

“Except the Northern Air Temple,” Sokka acknowledged, giving Zuko a nod. “But I don’t know if there’ll be anything for us up there.”

He didn’t want to say that there might not be anything there because the Fire Nation might have desecrated it like they’d done the Southern Air Temple, but he could tell that Katara understood what he was trying to say.

“Well, we’ll leave you to your planning meeting, then,” Aang said cheerfully. “We were just gonna go and do some waterbending practice.”

“You were?” Zuko asked, leaning forward again. “That’s great.”

“Yeah, it is. Katara’s gonna show me that new move she’s been practicing. The one where she smacks you round the head with the whip thing?”

Sokka pointed a finger at his little sister. “Do _not_ show him that water whip!”

“I thought we were just going to practice for a bit, Aang,” Katara said, looking a little bemused.

“Oh. Well, can you show me how to do it?” Aang gave her his best imploring face. It looked like the one Momo always used on Zuko when he wanted more lychee nuts.

Katara and Zuko were _hopeless_ , Sokka thought disappointedly as Katara caved and said she’d try and teach Aang the basics. One pleading look from some Air Nomad thingy and they were bending (hah! Get it?) over backwards to help them out. When Sokka tried a pleading look, he just got abuse.

“Great,” he grumbled once they’d left. “Someone else who’s gonna be smacking me about with water.”

“I think it’s good that Katara’s bending again,” Zuko disagreed. “She seemed… kind of down about it yesterday.”

“What do you mean?” Sokka frowned. He’d known his little sister had been a bit off lately – especially about her bending. “Is this when you guys were talking round the campfire?”

“Yeah. I don’t know, she just – she talked about how Jet was only interested in her because she was a waterbender, for a bit. I know it matters to her, but – she made it sound like it mattered to him in a _bad_ way.”

Sokka scowled. “I _hate_ that guy.”

Zuko nodded. “Yeah. Me too. But – yeah. Anyway, it sounded like she was saying… she’d wanted to bend the river for him because that was what _he’d_ wanted her to do. But then we talked about how she can bend based on what _she_ wants to do.”

Sokka thought about that for a moment, and he realized that he didn’t really know what his little sister wanted to do.

He knew that she wanted to be a master waterbender, _yeah_ , but that was like Sokka saying he wanted to be an amazing hunter. You had to go and _do_ something with that skill; you couldn’t just, like, _exist_ as an amazing hunter. You had to go out and _hunt_ – you needed to provide for your Tribe, for your family. A hunter who didn’t hunt was like a river that didn’t flow – it was stagnant, and it didn’t do anyone any good.

“Did she say anything about what she wants to do?” He asked, wondering what Katara would be like when she was a master waterbender.

“Actually, she talked about how she really cares about you,” Zuko said. “And about how she wants to bend based on protecting her family.”

Sokka looked at him. “Alright, no need to rub it in.”

“No, I’m serious!” Zuko’s face got really earnest at that point. It was _weird_. He had one of those faces that always let you know what he was thinking, but Sokka could only really remember _anger, grumpiness,_ and occasionally _confusion_ , when someone made a reference to something that he must not have been around for.

“Really, Sokka,” he continued. “Honest. That’s why she wants to bend – that’s what inspires her. It’s… really impressive,” he finished. There was a weird tone in his voice.

“What was that?”

“Hm?”

Sokka pointed an accusing finger at him. “That _wistfulness_. What was that?”

Zuko _blushed_ , and Sokka was just about to get his boomerang out – maybe even the damn frying pan – when he continued.

“I just – it’s really great that that’s what inspires her. When I was fourteen… I used anger and rage to fuel my bending.”

Sokka could probably see that. Zuko _was_ an angry jerkbender. “But Katara and Aang keep on talking about how much your meditation calms you down,” he pointed out, a bit confused.

“Yeah, no, it does,” Zuko nodded. “It helps me focus. But I’m still, like, _emotional_. Meditating helps me… channel those emotions. Like Katara channels her love for you. But I’m, uh – it’s still not perfect. I can’t bend lightning.”

Sokka wasn’t sure what bending lightning had to do with anything – but that had just opened up a _whole_ new set of nightmares, he was going to be dreaming about canyon crawlers throwing lightning bolts at him for _weeks_ – but that could wait for another time.

He had some stuff to think about.

…

Aang had figured out how to do the water whip after about ten minutes, but Katara was _still_ practicing it three quarters of an hour later, and he was kind of bored of it now.

It wasn’t even like Katara was still struggling to learn it, either – Aang was actually really impressed with how she could bend the water now, after a few attempts. She’d even managed to figure out how to make it a really _thin_ whip or a whip that was a bit blockier. Could water be _blocky?_ He knew you could get blocks of ice, which was technically water, but he wasn’t sure that counted. He thought about it for a bit as he played around with that _streaming the water_ move, waiting for Katara to get bored and move on to the next set of illustrations on the scroll.

But Katara was still doing that same water whip _another_ ten minutes later, and Aang was getting pretty impatient.

“Katara?”

“Hmm?” She paused in mid-whip, but she didn’t drop her stance. It kind of made Aang feel like he was bothering her, which made him feel a bit small.

“How long are we going to spend practicing the water whip?”

“Oh.” She finally dropped her stance and turned to give him her full attention. Aang felt a bit more relaxed after that. “Did you want to try something new?”

“Well, it’s just…” he tried to figure out how to say it. Sokka had said he needed to think about how what he said made other people feel. “We already know this one. And you’re really good at it.”

That made Katara smile, and he thought that had probably made Katara feel happy. Ten Sokka points to Aang!

“Thanks, Aang,” she said warmly, and Aang mentally awarded himself another five Sokka points. “But I really want to try and work on this one. I know how to do it, but… I want to see what _else_ I can do with it, you know?”

“You mean like what I’m doing with my marbles trick?” Aang thought about maybe showing Katara what he could do. He’d been trying to figure out how to do it whilst on an air scooter, but trying to keep the high-pressure air current going at the same time as he was trying to keep the marbles and acorns steady was proving a bit difficult. He’d probably have to talk to Zuko about that and see if they could come up with anything.

“Sort of,” Katara acknowledged. “But it’s more – I’ve never been able to learn any moves before, so I want to learn everything I can about _this_ move before I move onto the next one.”

Personally, Aang thought Katara would be better off trying to learn as many moves as she could, so that she could see how many of them she could try and mix together at the same time. Like how he was trying to combine his marbles _and_ his air scooter! But he remembered what Sokka had said about not trying to make Katara bend like an airbender.

Air was the element of freedom, he remembered. But maybe Katara actually liked the structure of going through every part of the water whip and seeing _exactly_ how it fit together. It was like she was taking it apart and putting it back together again, like Aang and Sokka had needed to do after Jet had swiped at Aang’s glider with his hook swords.

Sokka had really enjoyed figuring out how he could maybe make the glider more aerodynamic, and whilst Aang had wanted to tell him that there was _no way_ he’d know how to make an _Air Nomad_ glider better _in the air_ , he’d been having such a great time with it that Aang hadn’t wanted to spoil his fun. He’d awarded himself twenty Sokka points for that one.

“Katara?” He tried again.

“Yes, Aang?”

“If you’re going to be doing the water whip for a while… could I have the scroll and see what else is on there?”

“Oh, sure,” Katara handed it to him. “Just make sure you don’t get it wet, okay?”

Aang was about to say that he was going to be careful with it, but he caught how Katara was smiling, and he suddenly realized that she was teasing him!

Katara was really pretty, and she was really kind and really encouraging, but she didn’t make many jokes, and she wasn’t as funny as Sokka, so it was sometimes a bit tricky for Aang to tell when she was trying to be funny. But that one had been pretty funny!

He had to giggle. “Good one, Katara.”

She gave him another smile, and turned back to the river. “Are you going to be okay on your own with those?”

“Um…” Aang paused. If he was honest, he’d kind of been hoping to spend this time talking with Katara. She’d spent most of their time in Gaipan hanging out with Jet, and Aang had been having a great time going tree-hopping with The Duke and Sneers, but he’d still missed her when she wasn’t speaking to him. And then she’d gotten _really_ mad at Jet and Aang hadn’t really wanted to talk to her when she was being scary-mad _roarrrr_ Katara.

And then they hadn’t really been able to talk much in the Great Divide because she’d been walking with the Gan Jins but Aang hadn’t been able to walk with the Gan Jins or the Zhangs because he didn’t want to make it look like the Avatar was showing favoritism, and it had all been a bit awkward. Aang had been hoping this would be a good opportunity for them to catch up, but it seemed like Katara was more interested in her water whip than in talking to him.

He decided that the best thing to do would be to get on with learning the next few forms on the scroll. Then, if he got them right, Katara would be impressed and she’d want to talk to him!

But even when he’d managed to figure out this one move where he needed to step forward, then to the side, then do this little twirl thing with his leg behind his body, and then send the water forward in a wave, Katara was still just trying different things with her dumb water whip. Aang even put a little airbending twist on it and made the water do a loop-de-loop, but Katara was _really_ interested in that waterbending move.

Aang decided enough was enough after about another hour looking at the scroll, and gave himself a hundred Sokka points before going off to see whether Zuko had any ideas about how he could stay balanced on his air scooter whilst he was doing his marbles-and-acorns trick.

…

Katara felt horrible when she eventually turned around to see Aang gone and the scroll lying on the ground. She could remember him saying that he was probably going to go check something out back at the camp, but she’d just assumed he would come back after a few minutes, and then they’d be able to talk about how they were finding waterbending.

She was finding it reassuring to be able to bend for _herself_ again. This time, she wasn’t bending the underground water up to the surface so Jet could try and flood a town; she was bending a water whip so she could try and explore all the different _possibilities_ of her bending. She could do it however she wanted, and she could do it because _she_ wanted to, not because Jet or anybody else wanted her to do it.

And after trying to figure out her waterbending for so long, she wanted to take every single opportunity she could to learn more about her connection to her element. Meditation had been a good starting point, and she found it useful to try and help her broaden her… her _reach_ on the water around her, but water wasn’t a _still_ element; it was always in motion.

Katara had always found that her bending was better when she could be in motion, too. If she was too stiff, she struggled to move the water. She needed to be _fluid_ , like they’d been talking about. She’d thought that had meant that she needed to move to move the water, but she was learning that maybe she needed to let the water move. She could move _with_ the water.

Instead of pushing the water all the time, she could let the water move away from her on its own, and instead of trying to _pull_ the water to her, she could just wait for the water to come to her when she called it. The more she practiced the water whip, the more she found that she could feel the water around her, and the more responsive the water was when she pushed and pulled it.

“Hey, Katara? Where are you, little sis?”

She almost lost her hold on the water she was bending as her concentration slipped, and she had to hastily _sweep_ it into the river in a shower of droplets before it could splash all over the waterbending scroll.

That would have been embarrassing, she giggled to herself. Imagine if she’d teased Aang about how it would have been a shame if he’d gotten the scroll wet, only to accidentally soak it herself!

“I’m over here, Sokka!” she called back. “I’m just practicing!”

There was a pause before Sokka’s voice came back. “Am I gonna need to go and get a spare change of clothes before I come over?”

She had to smile at the suspicion in his voice. “I promise not to splash you, at least on purpose,” she said in a sing-song voice.

“You’d better not,” Sokka muttered, stepping out from among the trees. “Aang just tried his dumb juggling trick whilst riding his air scooter and ended up throwing a bunch of acorns in my face, so I’ve had enough bending-related accidents for one day.”

Katara gave him a sympathetic nudge in his side. “Didn’t you always used to complain that you’d had enough bending-related accidents for a lifetime?”

“Oh, how wrong I was,” Sokka sighed. “Take me back to the good old days. Back before my sister discovered how to summon Avatars and spirits and freaky magic stuff with her bending, and all I had to worry about was getting slush bent down my parka.”

“By _accident_ ,” Katara stressed, laughing at the look he gave her. “I swear, I didn’t even mean it half the time –”

“Oh, so half the time it _was_ on purpose, thanks –”

“Idiot,” she smiled, sitting down by the stream. “I didn’t even know what I was _doing,_ pretty much half the time. How was I supposed to bend at you if I didn’t know _how?_ ”

“But you’re getting really good, now,” Sokka told her as he joined her in the grass. “Aang says you’ve pretty much figured out that water whip move, like, a million times over. And Zuko was saying you’re doing an awesome job with your meditating bowls… thingy.”

“Zuko said that?”

Katara couldn’t imagine the taciturn firebender being so complimentary about her to Sokka. From what she’d seen, their relationship was pretty grumpy and sarcastic. It really did showcase their most noteworthy character traits, she thought.

“Yeah,” Sokka nodded. “He said you’re, like, a natural. And I was, like, ‘Well, you don’t have to tell _me_ twice’, you know? Like, I’ve been there every step of the way, of _course_ you’re a natural –”

“Whoa, whoa, Sokka,” Katara interrupted, raising a hand in confusion. “What’re you doing?”

“What do you mean, what am I doing?”

“What’s all –” She waved her hand vaguely in the air. “This?”

Sokka looked a bit confused. “Uh… we’re talking?”

“You’re being _nice_ ,” Katara accused him. “What’s going on?”

“Look, Katara, I’m just saying you’re not the worst bender I’ve ever seen in my life, okay?”

Sokka looked a bit uncomfortable, and _oh_ , right, that explained it. This was a conversation about _feelings_. Of course her brother wouldn’t want to say that. He thought he had a reputation to maintain. Katara was pretty sure his reputation was of a teenage boy who liked to eat and throw his boomerang around, but if Sokka wanted to tell himself he was a Manly teenager who ate tons of meat and threw his boomerang around, she wasn’t going to judge. Too much.

“I’m pretty sure I am, actually,” she pointed out, but she wasn’t feeling as bad about that as she might have done before she got the hang of that water whip. “Aang, Bumi, Zuko, Haru – they’re all pretty good.”

“I haven’t seen Zuko do anything impressive,” Sokka said dismissively. “All he does is play with candles. And the others are literally _whatever_ , you know?”

“What’s ‘whatever’?” Katara asked, because, as usual, she had no idea what Sokka meant.

“I mean they’re not Water Tribe, sis,” Sokka said, turning to her. “They’re not my little sister. I don’t care how good Bumi is at sticking a boulder in the air, or whatever Aang’s trying to do with those –stupid marbles.”

Katara was pretty sure Sokka had been about to say something else, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

“They’re not _you_ , Katara,” Sokka continued, giving her his stupid old big brother goofy grin. “And I don’t care what they say – Dad told me to take care of you, and Gran-Gran sent me out here to protect you, but back there in the canyon, when that creeper was coming after me? Back then _you_ were the one protecting me. And I think, pretty soon, your bending’s going to be good enough that you won’t even _need_ me to protect you.”

Katara was pretty sure she was about to cry, but she didn’t want to put Sokka in that kind of situation. She knew he got awkward when she cried. So she did the best thing she could in that situation, and bent a bit of water over him with a splash.

“It was an accident!” She called after her big brother as he stormed away, yelling a bunch of words that she would have water whipped him for if he’d used them around Aang.


	27. Chapter 27

Zuko had been woken up just before dawn by a splash of cold water to the face and what felt like a tornado mixed with a snowstorm buzzing round in his crotch.

“ _Agni’s fucking balls!_ ” He yelled as he instinctively lashed out with a fireball. Annoyingly, because he’d still been stuck in his sleeping bag, he only managed to set the sleeping bag on fire.

Another load of cold water came and soaked the rest of him.

“Normally, I’d be really mad about that language,” Katara told him. “But since it’s your birthday, I think we can give you one free pass.”

_What?_

“Happy birthday, Hotman!” Aang cheered, popping up in front of Zuko. “Sokka said you’d probably want a lie-in, but we knew we’d have to catch you early if we wanted to surprise you!”

“Surprise me?” Zuko repeated, still violently disoriented. “Aang, I – _why_ would you do that?”

Aang leaned in close and waggled his eyebrows.

“Fun,” he enunciated clearly.

Uncle Iroh would be extremely upset with Zuko if he killed the Keeper of the Balance because he’d woken him up early.

He groaned, and looked down at his soaking sleeping bag.

“When I’m seventeen,” he grumbled, extricating himself and grabbing a blanket. “When I’m _seventeen_ , we can revisit the ‘fun’ conversation.”

“Guess he didn’t turn fun overnight, Aang,” Sokka observed. “Too bad.”

“When are you going to turn _clever_ overnight?” Zuko retorted.

“Didn’t get any less grumpy, either, huh?”

Would Uncle be upset if Zuko beat Sokka up? He could say it was because he’d been impersonating Lee the flower guy.

“Better watch out, Sokka,” Katara told him. “You didn’t see Zuko in Senlin Village, when he didn’t do his morning meditations to calm down.” She affected a mock shudder. “Even grumpier than usual.”

“That is a _lie_ ,” Zuko replied flatly.

“And we all know how Zuko feels about lying,” Sokka pointed out. There was a bit of an awkward pause as everyone avoided looking at Aang whilst trying to avoid looking like they were avoiding looking at Aang.

“Anyway!” Katara pushed on valiantly. “We should probably get a few candles set up before Zuko gets mad and attacks Sokka.”

“And some bowls, too!” Aang popped up with some crockery. “We can fill these up and you can practice sensing the water again, Katara!”

Zuko wasn’t sure whether Katara would want to be bending again quite so soon after their conversation the other night, but she looked happy to take the two bowls from Aang and fill them up with her waterskins. Then, she handed one to him as Aang gave him a whole bunch of candles.

“Could you heat that up?” She asked, before she gave him a teasing smile. “For some reason, I can only do stew.”

Zuko reflected on how he had told his Uncle about half a dozen times over the years not to heat his tea up with firebending. He supposed this was the spirits laughing at him.

If Uncle ever heard about the time he had used his firebending to warm up his stew right in front of someone who hated the Fire Nation, he would probably give Zuko one of his _Looks_ and talk about how Zuko never thought these things through.

“After what you made for dinner last night, I can believe that,” he covered up his embarrassment with sarcasm as he put the now-steaming bowl of water down in front of her.

Katara gave him an unimpressed look. “Big talk from someone who can only do dumplings, _Lee_.”

“Don’t go talking smack about each other’s cooking just yet,” Sokka told them. He and Aang were standing next to the cooking pot, and Zuko immediately felt nervous.

“Seeing as Zuko’s birthday got off to possibly the worst start in the history of birthdays,” Sokka continued, “We figured we’d let him take time off from making breakfast as an apology.”

Katara’s bottom lip pushed out as she looked down at her two bowls. “Sokka, you should have told me before I –”

“No, sis, you don’t have to worry either,” Sokka waved a ladle to dismiss her protests. “Aang and I have got this.”

Zuko felt a lot more nervous. “It’s fine, Sokka – I can just do a quick meditation –”

“Zuko, buddy,” Sokka pointed the ladle at him. “I’m not just doing this for you. I had to get up _disgustingly_ early to help drag you out of that tent to wake you up, and that worked up an appetite. I’m cooking now so we can eat _soon_ – no arguments!”

Zuko resolved that if this was how his life ended, he was willing his last box of _shōgayu_ tea to Uncle. It wasn’t Uncle’s favorite, but at least it would go to a good home.

“I’m going to die from Sokka’s cooking,” he muttered, turning back to his candle. “I survived Uncle’s random forest tea for _this_.”

“It could be worse,” Katara consoled him, but paused and looked thoughtful. “I’m not sure how, but it could be.”

“If someone from the Water Tribe was going to kill me with kitchen equipment, I’d have thought it would be you.”

Katara grinned at him. “I’m still not sorry about it.”

Zuko rolled his eyes and touched his fingers to the candle, setting it aglow. Katara closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh, tucking her tousled dark hair behind her ear. They must have gotten up _early_ to do this, if she hadn’t even done her hair up in her loopies.

Katara made a little movement with her fingers, and the water moved with her – just a little, but _still_. Zuko remembered that it had taken him _weeks_ to work up to making the candles brighten and dim with his eyes closed. But Uncle had made sure he remembered his training, and Zuko was disciplined enough to be able to manage six candles in harmony now. He could manage the four Aang had given him easily enough.

He reached out to sense four little heartbeats of flickering warmth, and concentrated on bringing them under the control of his own inner flame. The Fire Nation taught that fire needed to impose its will on its surroundings, and that was true to an extent; fire naturally spread, consumed, and spread out – but the whole point was _discipline_. Jeong Jeong had always stressed the importance of control.

To achieve mastery of firebending was about being in control of the fire; about not letting the fire be in control of you. As fire looked to spread, you needed to guide it. Power needed to be channeled. Otherwise, fire was a burning curse…

Zuko was pretty sure that the burning was _not_ his imagination.

He opened his eyes and turned around. Sokka and Aang were looking nervously back at him from where they were standing over the cooking pot. Black smoke was rising lazily into the air.

“Who wants a birthday trip to the market?” Aang asked hopefully.

_Agni damn it_.

…

“There.” Katara nodded in satisfaction. “That should be everything.”

It had taken them a few hours, but they’d managed to buy back all the food they needed from the fishing port’s various stores. Sokka and Zuko had explained that they needed to stock up anyway, so they’d made a real day out of it.

Zuko had paid with some money his Uncle had given him, but Katara had felt a bit guilty about making him pay for stuff on his _own_ birthday. She knew Sokka would be feeling sort of bad about it too, but he’d never admit to anything so unmanly out loud.

“Thanks for paying for all that stuff, Zuko,” she began. “But there’s got to be something you want for yourself, right?”

“Yeah,” Sokka chimed in, looking a bit relieved that someone else had said it first. “I always wanted seal jerky on my birthday –”

“You always want seal jerky, Sokka,” Katara told him. “It doesn’t matter if it’s your birthday or not.”

“So what’s your seal jerky?” Sokka talked over Katara, giving her a frown. “Come on, man, that’s got to be something you want.”

Zuko looked a bit hesitant, so Katara nodded encouragingly. This was probably him being opposed to _fun_ , just like Aang said.

“I, um, kind of like sticky buns.” He phrased it like it was a question. “So… could we get some of those?”

Katara would have had to be a downright terrible person to find a reason to deny someone sticky buns. Especially when they looked _that_ hopeful.

“Sure,” she nodded.

Zuko looked ridiculously relieved. Was she really that hard on him? She’d only hit him with a frying pan _once_ , for Tui’s sake.

“Awesome. And, um – could we stay in an inn tonight? It looks like there’s a storm coming.”

“What?” Sokka laughed. “Come on, man. It’s a _beautiful_ day.”

“Well, it’s not just the weather,” Zuko hastened to add. He looked a bit embarrassed as he rubbed his hand at the back of his neck and ran it through his shaggy hair. “I, um – I kind of wanted to do some cooking with a real kitchen tonight.”

“You’re cooking on your own birthday?” Katara asked. “I can cook, if you wanted.”

Zuko gave her a small smile. “That’s cool, Katara. Thanks. But I, uh – yeah. I kind of want to.”

Truth be told, Katara _did_ like the idea of staying in an inn for a night. It would be nice to sleep in a real bed. The minute Sokka had understood that food was part of the equation, he had been determined to find an inn. Aang had been happy to try and make Zuko’s birthday _fun_ , but Katara was pretty sure he was fighting a losing battle, there.

They managed to find an inn that had two spare rooms, but that used up the last of Zuko’s Uncle’s money, so it looked like they’d have to go and find some work. Sokka had managed to land a job as a fish hauler with a grumpy old fisherman, but he’d stopped Zuko from volunteering his services as well because his leg was still healing.

“Besides, Zu – uh, Lee,” Aang tried not to give Zuko’s real name away. “It’s your _birthday_. You should be able to take a day off.”

“The boy with the tattoos has some sense,” the fisherman’s wife agreed. “You should listen to him!”

“Boy with tattoos?” The fisherman repeated, taking a closer look at Aang. “Airbender tattoos. Well, I'll be a hog monkey's uncle. You're the Avatar, ain't ya?”

“That’s right,” Katara said proudly. Aang was the Avatar, the one her grandmother had told her would restore the balance between the nations. And they were there to help him!

But it seemed like the old fisherman was just a sour, bitter old man. He thought the last hundred years of war was Aang’s fault. He thought Aang had turned his back on the world!

“Aang is the bravest person I know,” Katara stated firmly. “He's done nothing but help people and save lives since I met him! It’s not his fault he disappeared – right Aang?” She added, turning around.

Aang had a strange expression on his face, and it confused Katara.

“Aang?” She repeated. “What’s wrong?”

Too late, she realized what the look on Aang’s face was – it was the same look Sokka wore whenever Gran-Gran had caught him trying to steal an extra kale cookie. It was shock, and guilt.

But Katara didn’t have long to see that look on Aang’s face, because he turned and broke into a run, flying away on his glider.

“Aang!” Zuko yelled after him. “Aang, what’re you _doing_ –”

“That's right!” The fisherman shouted. “Keep flying!”

Katara wanted to _hit_ that fisherman. “You’re a horrible old man!” She told him furiously, before turning to Zuko. “We’ve got to go after him.”

Zuko shook his head. “You go after him – I think he’ll want someone to talk to. I’ll get back to the inn and get started on dinner.”

“Oh, right.” Katara glanced down at his leg. “Are you going to be okay getting back?”

“You should take Appa,” he said. “It’ll be easier than finding him on foot.”

“Good luck finding him anyway,” the fisherman muttered. “Probably take another hundred years for him to show up again –”

Zuko shot him a furious glare, and Katara was very happy to see the old man _shut up_.

She clambered up onto Appa, and turned to face Zuko. “We’ll be back in time for dinner.”

He nodded. “See you then.”

As Katara and Appa set off, she could feel raindrops begin to fall around her. Pretty soon, the rain was falling hard, and she was struggling to see as the night drew in. But she had to find Aang.

She had been so worried when he’d gone missing in Senlin Forest – she hadn’t known where he was or what had happened to him. She _had_ to find him this time; she didn’t know if she could wait all through the night for him to come back again.

As Appa flew along the cliff face, Katara couldn’t help the cry of relief she let out as she saw Aang’s glider lying in the entrance to one of the caves. As Appa landed and she scrambled down, she could see Aang, he was there, he was _okay_.

He looked up at her, and he looked so _small_ , all on his own in the darkness, his shoulders hunched and his arms wrapped around his knees. He looked so _young_.

“I’m sorry for running away,” he said quietly.

“That’s okay,” Katara reassured him. She was too relieved to worry about that. “That fisherman was way out of line.”

Katara was just happy Aang was _safe_.

…

At the South Pole, the first signs of bad weather were the signal for all the men to stop whatever they were working on down on the water, pack up as much as they could reasonably carry, and get back to the village as quickly as possible. Snowstorms brought zero visibility, freezing temperatures, and howling winds that could knock you down if you got caught. If you found yourself in a snowstorm, Dad had always told Sokka, there was nothing you could do but pray.

This old fisherman had clearly never visited the South Pole, Sokka thought disbelievingly. If he had ever been, he’d still be there, frozen somewhere under a snowbank after he went out to fish in the middle of a blizzard.

_Aang was right_ , he thought miserably to himself as he struggled along the deck. _This wasn’t such a good idea_. Sokka could have been sitting in a nice, warm inn with Zuko, taste-checking whatever he was making and having an altogether lovely time. He could even have been lying in a nice, warm _bed_ in a nice, warm inn. A real bed! Not one of those sleeping bags that were a bit threadbare, which meant his feet got a bit chilly. _And_ he’d be able to lock his room so that Aang wouldn’t be able to sneak in and wake him up with his freezing air!

Instead, he was trying to move around a slippery deck on a dark night; lifting a bunch of crates here there and everywhere; trying to avoid stubbing his toe or tripping over a whole bunch of _other_ crates; and desperately trying _not_ to fall into the ocean and get lost at sea and drown. That would be really bad.

He’d told Aang that the difference between cool and deadly was that deadly was always cool, but cool wasn’t always deadly, and he would be _quite_ okay with finding another way to be cool that was _not_ ‘drowning in the ocean’. His Dad would be very disappointed in him if he, a warrior of the Southern Water Tribe, drowned.

Bato would probably be really disappointed too, but Sokka _knew_ that as soon as Bato found him in the Spirit World, he had a whole eternity of Bato’s shit-talking to look forward to.

_Well, Sokka, you’ve really outdone yourself this time. I thought you’d made your wackiest error of judgement when you heard your grandmother talk about how making a good five-flavor soup was like turning ice into gold, and then you went and stuck a whole bunch of ice in her valuables box and put it over the cooking fire. She came in to see you standing there on tiptoes, arms trembling and face bright red – and when she opened the box, the ice had melted and spoiled all through her supply of jasmine tea!_

Sokka was _not_ going to die out here in the middle of a storm. He was _way_ too young to die. Sure, it would be a pretty Manly way to go, but there were still so many things he hadn’t accomplished. He hadn’t even gone ice-dodging yet!

He grunted as another sea spray rose up and soaked him. The salt stung his eyes, the cold chilled his face, and the wet soaked all through his shirt. It was like Katara’s magic water, except meaner and nastier.

At least when Katara did it, she was still his baby sister. The ocean wasn’t kind and generous, though – La wasn’t _anything_ like that. The ocean gave and the ocean took, and there wasn’t any kind of offering you could make to bargain with La. You could only take your chances and try your best to stick together with your crew on the open seas, trusting each other to get you through. And then the next time, you hoped that the weather was better, the seas were calmer, and La wasn’t still in a bad mood from last time.

Sometimes Tui held La in check, but sometimes the ocean would swell beyond the tides, and where was Tui then?

Sokka really hoped the moon spirit would be able to calm La down before much longer, because if he had to take his chances and stick together with this old fisherman much longer, he did _not_ fancy his chances.

“Get those nets in, boy!” The old man yelled, even though Sokka was right there next to him. “Time to see what we’re looking at!”

“My name is _Sokka_ ,” he gestured annoyedly at himself. “Me! Sokka!”

“I don’t care what your name is!” The old guy harrumphed. _Jerk_. “If I told you my name’s Fuxi, it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference!”

Probably not, Sokka conceded. But it _would_ have made him feel a bit guiltier about chucking the grumpy old bastard overboard. He almost missed Zuko – at least that guy would be alright with a bit of smack talk.

He stomped over to the stern of the boat and hauled up the seine nets. They were made heavy with the water and potentially a whole bunch of fish, and Sokka hadn’t been eating much meat in the past couple of hours, so it was pretty hard going.

With a grunt, he dragged the nets onto the deck, and as the lightning flashed, he could see a whole load of fish! _Awesome_. Man, that Fuxi guy was gonna be paying up! Sokka didn’t know if the old fisherman would be paying him with a whole ton of copper coins, a big pile of silver coins, a bunch of gold coins, but whatever – Sokka wasn’t Fuxi, and he wasn’t fussy, either.

He noticed that their deck torch had gone out in the storm, which wasn’t surprising. He thought he’d seen a glass case down below deck, so he stomped back downstairs. Oh, the sweet blessed relief of being out of the howling wind and pouring rain, just for a moment.

He found the lantern, and took a few moments longer to rummage around for some spark rocks. He’d had some in his pocket, but he was pretty sure they’d be soaked through. He picked up a case and heard something rattling around in it – bingo!

It didn’t take long to light up the lantern, and for a moment, Sokka could stand there below deck, in the cramped space, with the sound of the rain drumming down above him a little dulled. The lantern gave off a warm glow, and he took a few seconds to himself. It was a heck of a lot warmer and dryer in here than it was up on deck.

“Out here, you lazy bastard! I don’t see you, and I don’t see fish! I’m not paying you to take a nap!”

Sokka sighed and grabbed the lantern before heading back up to the deck. He never would have thought he’d find himself missing Zuko.

_Grumpy bastard_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the purposes of this fic, Zuko’s 16th birthday falls in midwinter, around mid-December. Sokka’s 16th birthday will be in late February, and Katara’s 15th birthday will be in early April. They talked about this in Chapter 4. :)
> 
> According to Wikipedia, [Fuxi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuxi) is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology who is credited with the invention of fishing.


	28. Chapter 28

Katara sat down with Aang and tried to think of a way to get him to talk to her. The rain was really coming down outside, and it looked like they’d be stuck here for a while.

“That fisherman was way out of line,” she eventually decided. She couldn’t believe how awful he’d been! He must have seen the smile on Aang’s face and decided that the world had too much happiness floating around, or something.

“Actually, he wasn’t.”

Katara’s surprise must have shown on her face, because Aang rested his chin on his knees and avoided looking at her.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“I don't want to talk about it.”

Katara didn’t want to pressure Aang into speaking about anything. He’d seemed so hurt by what the old man had said, and she was still _worried_ about him. She wanted to let Aang know that he could talk to her about it.

She remembered that Zuko had said she could talk if she wanted to. She hadn’t wanted to talk to him in Senlin, and he’d kind of rambled a bit about stuff, but when he’d asked her about Jet, she’d still been able to talk about it.

“Well, if you want to talk about it, I’m here,” she said, putting her hand on Aang’s shoulder. “Or I can talk, if you want.”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

Katara looked out at the storm outside. It looked like they were going to be in here for a while. She thought they were probably going to be late back to the inn. “I'm going to try to get a little fire going.”

The warmth of the fire seemed to make Aang feel a little better, because he started talking to Katara about how he’d grown up at the Southern Air Temple. She felt indignant when he started talking about how Monk Tashi had kept pressuring him to grow up – Aang was only twelve! He shouldn’t even have been told he was the Avatar until he was sixteen, so why should he have to grow up four years too soon?

Ever since… _Mom_ … Katara had been taking on all the tasks that she shouldn’t have had to be responsible for. She hated the idea that the monks had been pushing Aang to grow up so fast.

And when Aang told her about how the other kids had started treating him differently because he was the Avatar, he’d seemed so upset. He’d taught them how to make their own air scooters, and then they’d come up with their own game they could play on their air scooters without him, and they hadn’t even let him play!

Katara couldn’t believe it. The Avatar was the one who was supposed to bring peace to the world and keep the balance between the nations! As a general rule, Katara thought that doing something that would make the Avatar unhappy with you was probably a bad idea for the Air Nomads as a whole. They were lucky that Aang was such a kind, generous boy – if they’d treated Katara like that and stopped her from playing with them, she would have been _mad_.

Apparently, Monk Tashi hadn’t given up on making Aang learn all the high-level techniques they taught at the Air Temple, but Katara was glad to hear that Monk Gyatso had still been on Aang’s side. He’d even tried to stop Monk Pasang from sending Aang away to the Eastern Air Temple, but Monk Pasang had been insistent that Aang had to leave everyone behind.

“That's awful, Aang.” Katara couldn’t even imagine what that must have been like for a twelve-year-old. “I don't know what to say.”

“How could they do that to me?” Aang asked, standing up. His fists were trembling. “They wanted to take away everything I knew, and everyone I loved!”

Katara gasped as Aang’s tattoos glowed and he started to go into the Avatar State. She’d seen him do this at the Fire Temple, and it had been terrifying. This was what she had meant about how the Air Nomads shouldn’t have upset Aang!

_Hot cinders!_

Aang must have noticed how nervous she was, because he came out of the Avatar State and went to sit over by the fire again.

“I'm sorry I got so mad,” he said sadly.

Katara had been a bit worried when he’d gone into the Avatar State, but she couldn’t blame him for how he was feeling. “You have the right to be angry after the monks sent you away like that.”

Aang went on to tell her that it hadn’t actually happened _exactly_ like that. When he had overheard Gyatso and Pasang talking, he had run away from the Southern Air Temple in a panic.

“I never saw Gyatso again,” he explained. “Next thing I knew, I was waking up in your arms after you found me in the iceberg.”

Katara vividly remembered that moment – a pair of gray eyes peering up at her, asking if she wanted to go penguin sledding.

“My people needed me,” Aang whispered. “And I wasn't there to help.”

Katara couldn’t even imagine what that must have been like. But then, she couldn’t imagine what a world without the war was like, either. “You don’t know what would have –”

“The world needed me,” Aang continued, looking into the fire with a tortured expression. “And I wasn't there to help!”

Katara didn’t know what to say. Aang was the Avatar – Katara’s grandmother had used to tell her stories about the old days; a time of peace when the Avatar kept the balance. Those days were the _old_ days, because when the world had needed Aang the most, he had vanished.

But now he was _back_ , the Avatar had returned. The spirits had brought him back. It had to have happened this way, because if it hadn’t, then the war could have been avoided, and the Fire Nation wouldn’t have attacked, and Katara’s _Mom_ …

“I know it was meant to be this way,” she said. She wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince Aang, or herself. “The world needs you now. You give people hope.”

Suddenly, there was a scuffling sound outside the cave. Katara and Aang turned round to see that awful fisherman’s wife hurrying towards them.

“Help!”

“It’s okay!” Katara moved to help her along and bring her closer to the fire. “You’re safe.”

“But my husband isn't,” she cried out.

Katara gasped. “What do you mean?” A terrible thought struck her. “Where's Sokka?”

“They haven't returned,” the old lady explained. “They should have been back by now – and this storm is becoming a typhoon! They're caught out at sea!”

Aang jumped up to his feet. “I'm going to find him!”

“I’m coming with you,” Katara declared. The last time Sokka had been missing and Aang had gone to find him, she had been left behind, _waiting_.

“I'm staying here,” the old woman said flatly.

“No,” Katara shook her head. “Our friend is back at the inn – you should go and wait with him.”

Waiting in Senlin Village had been horrible, but at least she had been there with Zuko. Waiting on her own, that would have been… _awful_.

The old lady grumbled, but she got to her feet as Katara joined Aang on Appa.

“We'll be back soon,” Aang said. “I promise.”

…

For Zuko’s fifteenth birthday, he and Uncle had played Pai Sho and had the last of their supply of _shōgayu_ tea. It had been a quiet night spent in Uncle Iroh’s cabin away from the crew, who’d been given the night off. They’d learnt their lessons from Zuko’s fourteenth birthday, the first since he’d been banished, when Uncle had staged a music night and invited all the crew along. Of course, that had meant that the whole crew had been there when Zuko had taken one look at the tsungi horn Uncle had given him and burst into tears. It had been a very awkward morning the next day.

Uncle must have been in a good mood on Zuko’s fifteenth, though, because he had told him about Lu Ten’s fifteenth birthday – apparently, Zuko’s cousin had skipped out on a birthday party Uncle had set up in his honor, and instead gone down to one of the taverns in Caldera City’s port to get blackout drunk with a couple of his friends. Zuko had been in quite a good mood too – or at least, he’d been in what passed for a good mood when he was an exile stuck on a ship, with no honor in a homeland that had rejected him and no way of regaining it. Instead of getting angry about how Lu Ten had been able to spend his fifteenth birthday in the capital with his friends, he’d just asked Uncle if he knew of any way Zuko could get blackout drunk and carry on a family tradition.

Uncle had laughed. “You have left behind much of our family’s terrible legacy this past year, and I am proud of you for it,” he had said. “Perhaps it is time to begin new traditions, Nephew.”

Zuko had been a bit disappointed that he’d woken up on the second day of being fifteen still able to remember his birthday, but Ensign Takahashi had apparently overheard a conversation between Uncle and Lieutenant Jee about Lu Ten’s hard-partying fifteenth, and she’d handed him a hipflask. He’d been a bit confused – over the past year, he’d learnt to be a better and more tolerant captain on the ship, but drinking on deck had still been one of the hard limits. But Takahashi had just told him that being a year closer to the legal drinking age meant that he was being less rebellious than if he’d drunk it at fourteen, so he might as well get on with it before he turned sixteen. Uncle had _not_ been impressed.

Zuko could spot a rather worrying pattern developing over the past three years, he noted to himself. At fourteen, he had had altogether too many people around him on his birthday; at fifteen, he had had Uncle. Now, at sixteen, he was alone.

He looked at the four bowls of _chahan_ he had made that were now lying on the mat he had laid down on the floor of his room, and sighed before picking up a spoon.

He’d set chopsticks out, partially because he always found it amusing that Sokka always struggled with them, but also because he had liked to draw out his conversations with Uncle when they were eating the food of their home. The longer they took to eat, the longer they could reminisce about how the fertile soil around the volcanoes brought forth the crops, and how the fields had looked when the fire lilies and the camellia bloomed.

But Zuko was a practical sort, and if there wasn’t anyone around with him, he wasn’t going to mope around and remember what life had been like three years ago whilst eating _chahan_ with chopsticks.

Sokka must still have been out on the boat, he suspected – he imagined they’d probably be back in the morning. Uncle had been an absolute font of useless knowledge, but he’d once told Zuko that in the Fire Nation, most of the fishing boats went out during the night. Apparently, fish would dive during the day when the sun was bearing down and warming the waters so they could find the cooler deep waters. Zuko wasn’t sure if or how that would translate to the Earth Kingdom during the middle of winter, but it was at least an explanation as to why he wasn’t back yet.

But as to why Aang and Katara hadn’t returned, Zuko didn’t have an explanation.

 _They could just be taking shelter_ , he thought uneasily, chancing another glance at the window. Raindrops were battering the glass panes and trailing down. Every so often, the lightning flashed, but the rain obscured whatever view he might have been able to enjoy.

 _Where are they?_ He wondered to himself. He was tempted to go and look for them, but he’d already gone a fair bit of walking on his injured leg, and he didn’t think it would go very well. The cold was stinging his calf, and he let out a frustrated sigh as he set his bowl back down.

Zuko had been _banished_ for weakness. He _hated_ feeling weak. But he honestly didn’t know if he’d be able to go out and search for Aang and Katara. If he hadn’t been going out around the marketplace earlier, he wouldn’t be in this position, but it was so typical that only now, when his body needed rest, did he feel like he should go out and push himself.

He just felt so _helpless_ when he couldn’t do anything. Uncle had said that he never thought things through, but Zuko had nothing to do right now but think things through. He couldn’t go out and risk aggravating his injury, so he was stuck alone with his thoughts. He didn’t even have Ensign Takahashi’s hip flask with him to occupy him, although he had to accept that the contents might have done him more harm than good. That shit had tasted like the kind of thing Midshipman Yang might have used for engine fuel.

A hurried knocking sounded on his door, and Zuko rolled his eyes. _Finally_.

“Give me a minute,” he called, easing himself onto his feet by using the bed and the table to haul himself up. “My leg’s still a bit sore – have you got your key?”

There wasn’t a reply, just another set of knocking. Pesky airbender, always so impatient. Zuko hoped there was a spare towel in the drawers; that was probably why Aang was in such a hurry to dry off.

“Just don’t get my stuff soaked,” he began as he opened the door, only to halt as soon as he could see out into the corridor.

“You’re not Aang,” he began dumbly.

The fisherman’s wife folded her arms and gave him a glare. He swallowed and shuffled aside to let her into the room.

“Your friend has gone out to search for my husband,” she declared briskly. “I did _not_ want to go out into a typhoon, so I elected to stay behind. The girl thought I should let you know.”

Zuko looked out the window, and another flash of lightning lit up the night sky. A clap of thunder resounded and rattled the panes.

Uncle was not going to be very impressed with him, he thought weakly to himself.

 _Could really do with that hip flask right now_.

…

Sokka liked to make a note of rare and inexplicable occurrences, just so he could have a record of them throughout his life. He could remember the first time Katara had bent water – she’d been three and in the middle of a tantrum, and she’d smacked her hands down on the floor and made the cooking stew slosh about – and he could remember the time she’d gotten so mad at him that she’d accidentally brought the Avatar back from a hundred years of sleep.

(If Sokka got out of this, he promised himself, he was going to treat himself to at _least_ a hundred minutes of kicking Fuxi’s butt.)

But then the last couple of months had brought quite a few more strange moments in Sokka’s life. Getting beaten up by a bunch of girls had been unusual but he’d quickly accepted it as the norm on Kyoshi, but then, in no particular order, he’d been kidnapped by a spirit, trapped in rock crystals, almost killed by a total _dick_ who apparently ate straw (terrible diet, Sokka knew), ended up in the Fire Nation, and involved in a prison break. And out of all of these situations, Sokka knew this was the strangest and most unique moment of all.

 _Zuko had been right_ , Sokka admitted to himself. Zuko had been right about something, and he didn’t know what to do with that.

“I'm too young to die!” He wailed.

“I'm not,” Fuxi cried out. Sokka thought that was the saddest part of the whole situation. “But I still don't wanna!”

Sokka was too terrified to even feel grossed out about clutching on to the old man like his life depended upon it. Oh. Wait a minute.

He was going to die out here on the waves. Katara was a million miles away from home, in the middle of the Earth Kingdom. Dad would be furious with Sokka if he heard how he’d let him down. How he’d let Mom down. He’d let Aang down, with how he hadn’t listened to him. He hoped that Aang could remember to listen to him, and let Katara learn waterbending her way. He hoped that Zuko could get them on to Makapu, and then from there to the North Pole. They needed him to lead, and they needed to follow the plan.

Thankfully, right at the last moment, Aang showed up. Oh, man, Sokka _knew_ that lighting that old lamp was a good idea!

“Hang onto the rope!” Aang called, and Sokka held on like his life depended upon it. Oh. Wait a minute.

Appa flew off, and the sharp _yank_ on the rope sent Sokka and Fuxi right up into the saddle. But just when Sokka was about to thank Tui for holding back La’s rage for long enough for them to get out of there, a huge wave came up and sent Appa crashing into the depths.

As he accepted his fate, Sokka sent up a silent _fuck-you_ to La, and wished for a new Moon Spirit that could actually do their job.

Suddenly, a blinding light flashed through the water, and Sokka could breathe again. The wind whipped around him as Aang went into the Avatar State, and he gasped for air as he fall back onto Appa. The bison rose up out of the water, and Sokka almost wept with relief as he slumped over the side of Appa’s saddle.

_He wasn’t going to die in the middle of the ocean!_

“Sokka!” Katara turned him over and roughly grabbed his chin, examining his face with panicked eyes. “Sokka, are you okay?!”

“Katara, _whoa_ ,” he pushed her away. Raindrops had been falling off her soaked hair loopies and falling into his eyes. “I’m _fine_ , seriously –”

“So glad you’re okay –”

“Yeah, you were really acting super affectionate early, sis –”

“So worried about you –”

“You literally left without saying goodbye, come _on_ –”

“Sokka!” She yelled, hitting his shoulder and _ow_ , she’d just said she was glad he was okay!

But as Sokka looked at her wide eyes and the way she was wrapping her hands around herself, and how her breath was coming in shaky gasps, he realized that he was really glad _she_ was okay, too.

“Hey,” he reached out and gave her a big brother hug, pulling her head onto his shoulder and rocking her back and forth. “Hey, sis – come on, I’m here. We’re fine.”

Katara made a sound that almost sounded like a sob, and Sokka winced. Oh, _slush_ , if he’d survived death by drowning only for Katara to start crying all over him, that was super lame. He’d had enough of saltwater for one night.

Aang steered Appa down to the village square, and they all flopped off the sky bison in a series bedraggled, soaking wet _flops_. The kid on reception gave the four of them personalized scandalized looks as they traipsed through on their way to the stairs, but Sokka couldn’t care less.

“Look, buddy,” he pointed at the kid, who couldn’t have been more than a few years older than Sokka at the most. “Not a word. You wouldn’t _believe_ the day I’ve had.”

When Aang knocked on the room he was sharing with Zuko, he had barely brought his hand back down when the door was wrenched open.

Zuko looked at them with a wide-eyed stare. Well, one wide eye, Sokka amended. The other eye was kind of… scarred, all over. But it was still looking at them with relief.

“You’re okay,” Zuko managed. “You’re – you’re all okay.”

Oh, no, Sokka knew that look. Katara sometimes had that look, before she went off and made long speeches about hope and how everything would turn out okay in the end. Sokka had _reached_ the end of his super-long, super-awful day, and he had no desire to return to the midway point where he hadn’t been sure if things _were_ going to turn out okay.

“Yeah, buddy,” he agreed, pushing his way into the room. “We’re all okay, and we’re all here, and I, for one, am _starving_. What ya got cooking?”

“Oh, you're alive!” The fisherman’s wife cried out in relief, rushing past Sokka to go to her husband. _Typical_. Sokka hadn’t even got an answer to his question.

“You owe this boy an apology!” She told Fuxi sternly, and, well, Sokka could accept that instead. He’d had a long day.

“He doesn't have to apologize,” Aang said.

 _What the fuck_.

Sokka was gonna kick the _shit_ out of that kid’s bony butt.

“What if, instead of an apology, I give him a free fish and we call it even?”

“Actually, I don't eat meat.”

Sokka was standing right here! He’d almost drowned! All the fisherman had done to Aang was… Oh, right, yeah, Sokka remembered. He’d been a total jerk to him and basically told him he was a coward. What a _dick_.

“Seriously, you're still going to pay me, right?” He wanted to know.

Sokka got a fish for his troubles. _Whatever_. He hoped that whatever Zuko had made for dinner was better than the fish.

And he _really_ hoped that whatever Zuko had made for dinner was better than what Sokka had made for breakfast.


	29. Chapter 29

Katara looked over to Aang as he slept in a pile of blankets and Zuko’s tunics. When they’d returned, Zuko had looked like he was on the edge of a nervous breakdown at the sight of them all shivering and huddled together like otter penguins in the middle of the snow. He’d bundled Katara off to her and Sokka’s room before heading back to his and Aang’s and shut the door. Through the thin wall separating them, Katara had heard quite a bit of muffled angry swearing that sounded fairly grumpy, Aang’s higher voice chattering away, and the unmistakable sound of Sokka yelling _I’m fucking_ fine _, guys, alright?!_.

Katara had just shaken her head and gotten changed into her nightclothes – one of her Dad’s old shirts and the pair of leggings she’d managed to sew up. The seam had been a bit tricky, so she didn’t want to use it in day-to-day use again in case it split, but the nights were still cold in midwinter and she wasn’t about to throw something away if she could still use it. Gran-Gran would have had just as big a fit as Zuko seemed to be having if she did. When she’d knocked on the door to be let back in, there had been an awkward hush and some frantic whispering before Aang had opened the door.

“Hey, Katara,” he’d said, although he’d sounded pretty tired. “Sokka says he’s fucking fine.”

Behind him, Katara had heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Although she couldn’t see through the door, she was pretty sure Sokka had just smacked his hand into his forehead.

“That’s really good to hear, Aang,” she’d decided on, stepping into the room. “Although he won’t be if he keeps talking like that.”

“Are you seriously going to kill me after all that?” Sokka had whined. “I haven’t even _eaten_ … whatever this is!”

Katara had been generous enough to let her brother off the hook – she really had been worried about him – and they’d all sat down to eat something Zuko called _chahan_. It had tasted _good_ , warm and hearty and, honestly, just what Katara had needed after spending her day out in the cold and the rain.

“You can usually make it with pretty much anything,” Zuko had shrugged. “Vegetables, boar-pork, seafoods – but I figured you’d be pretty sick of seafood after a day fishing.”

Sokka had muttered something about the old fisherman that Katara would probably have agreed with if she could have made it out, even if it _did_ include a swear word.

“Thanks for keeping it vegetarian, Zuko,” Aang had yawned. His eyes had been drooping and he’d almost nodded off into his bowl twice by that point. “’S’really good.”

“Thanks,” Zuko had said, sharing a glance with Sokka. Katara’s brother snickered as he’d hopped up to his feet and pulled Aang along. Zuko had just scowled and looked down at his left leg like it had personally offended him. Katara thought it was pretty funny how put-out he was acting about his injury. He’d be a _terrible_ patient.

“Thanks, Sokka,” Aang mumbled as he settled into his bed. “Thanks, buddy.”

“Shut up, kid,” Sokka soothed him, pulling the covers up. “Don’t make it weird.”

“Besss… buddy…” Aang trailed off and began snoozing. Katara couldn’t blame him; he’d looked so tired when they’d been eating _._

“He seems _exhausted_ ,” Zuko observed, watching him. “Is he okay?”

“He went into the Avatar State,” Sokka explained. “You saw him after the Fire Temple. Really wipes him out.”

“He did it earlier, too,” Katara remembered. In all the chaos of rescuing Sokka, she’d almost forgotten about talking to Aang in the cave. “When I found him.”

“Did you find out why he ran off?” Zuko asked.

Katara explained about what Aang had told her, about how he’d struggled at the Air Temple and how the monks had told him he was the Avatar, and what Aang had said about how he’d ended up in the iceberg. By the end of it, Sokka looked concerned and Zuko looked pensive.

“So he was suddenly something he’d never expected to be,” he said, looking over at Aang.

“That must have been really hard,” Katara said softly. “No wonder he ran away.”

“I don’t get it, though,” Sokka still looked a bit worried. “Monk Gyatso was saying he wasn’t going to let them take Aang away? So why was he so worried?”

“Monk Pasang was saying it didn’t matter what Gyatso wanted,” Katara explained, feeling indignant at the old monk who had been more worried about the Avatar than a twelve-year-old boy.

“But they wouldn’t have just _abandoned_ him… right?” Zuko said uncertainly. “He’d have had someone with him. He wouldn’t have had to go alone.”

Katara glared at him. “You think he should have gone? They were trying to take him away from his _family._ ”

“Sometimes you have to leave your family behind to do what you need to do,” he answered quietly.

“Like you,” Sokka said, looking at Katara. “When you were banished.”

Before Katara could say anything, Zuko swore _loudly_.

“Quiet!” She hissed at him, glancing worriedly over at Aang. To her relief, he hadn’t woken up.

“Sorry!” He gritted his teeth, clutching at his leg. “Sorry, I just – wasn’t expecting that.” He looked at Sokka with a really weird look on his face. “What did you say?”

Sokka looked to Katara for answers, but she was as nonplussed as he was. “Katara got banished from the village when she set off with Aang.”

“You mean, _you_ banished me,” she reminded him.

“Trivial details,” Sokka waved his hand dismissively. “But, yeah. You knew you had to leave us behind if you wanted to go to the North Pole.”

“I guess,” Katara said, but she hadn’t really looked at it like that. “But I had to go, really. To the North Pole.”

“But you could – you could go back, right?” Zuko looked really anxious about this. “To your home?”

“Of course.” Katara smiled at Sokka. “He gave in eventually.”

“Well, I couldn’t banish you forever,” Sokka acted put out, but she knew he was just as relieved that she was okay as _she_ was that _he_ was safe after the storm. “You’re family.”

Zuko said nothing, but stared hard at his empty bowl. Katara remembered what he’d told them after leaving the Fire Temple at the same time Sokka sucked in his breath.

“Shit. Sorry, man… I forgot.”

Katara would have told him off for swearing, but she’d completely forgotten too.

Zuko was banished, but he couldn’t go home.

He shook his head. “It’s okay.”

“Still,” she whispered. “We forgot, and that’s not okay.”

“No, really. It’s fine. It’s just –” he licked his lips. “It’s my birthday.”

“What’s…” She hesitated, but pressed on. “What’s it like, in the Fire Nation?”

Katara remembered how, when she had missed her home, Zuko had asked her about the South Pole. Maybe he’d want to talk about his.

Zuko was quiet for a moment before he started talking.

“It’s beautiful in the summertime. I remember seeing the countryside, and how the grass sways when the wind picks up. The soil is dark, but when the fire lilies bloom, it’s all sorts of colors. The ocean’s blue.”

Even Sokka was quiet, and Katara wrapped her arms around her legs and leaned forward to rest her chin on her knees as Zuko talked about his home.

“There was this pond I used to sit at, with the turtleducks…”

…

Aang woke up in the morning and immediately wanted to go back to bed. He felt like he’d been _awake_ for a hundred years this time round. But Zuko was already up and it sounded like he’d already finished his meditation, because he was moving round the room. Aang could tell he was moving around because he was making a lot of noise and he kept swearing under his breath. His leg must have been hurting him again.

“Agni _damn_ it –”

Aang appreciated that Zuko was trying to keep his voice down so he could continue sleeping, but if he was already awake, it was kind of a lost cause. He stretched out under his covers and let out a deliberately loud sigh so that Zuko would know he was awake.

“Oh. Hey, Aang.”

“Hey, Zuko.” Aang sat up and leaned back against the wall, and rubbed his eyes. “You don’t have to worry about being quiet – I was already awake.”

“Actually, it’s not you I was being quiet for,” Zuko jerked his thumb behind his shoulder. “That wall’s really thin.”

“Oh.” Aang understood – Zuko was trying not to let _Katara_ hear him swearing. “How long have you been up?”

“I finished meditating about an hour ago.”

“Well, thanks for being quiet and letting me get another hour in bed, I guess.”

“I already told you I wasn’t doing it for you,” Zuko gave him a pointed look. “I don’t care about _your_ sleep schedule.”

“Katara _is_ kind of scary if you wake her up early,” Aang agreed. “This one time at the South Pole, I accidentally sneezed and made a really big air burst, and it woke her and Sokka up, and she got _mad_ –”

Aang jumped when he heard a _thud-thud-thud_ on the wall.

“I can hear you, Aang!” Came a muffled voice. “And you forgot the part where you sent _freezing cold air_ straight into my face!”

Aang winced. Hopefully Katara wouldn’t be _too_ scary when he saw her. He heard Sokka’s voice say something like _why’d you have to wake me up too, huh?_ , and turned to Zuko, who just shrugged.

“Told you it was thin,” he said.

Aang gave him a nervous smile. “Oops?”

Zuko looked like he was about to laugh, but he shook his head. That was okay – Aang knew he would always choose _serious_ over _fun_ , and it looked like today was no exception. “Come on – eat up, and then we can pack up.”

Zuko had dished up the last of the _chahan_ from his birthday meal, and Aang handed it to him to heat it up. That was a really nifty way to firebend, he thought, but he still thought the way Zuko could juggle little fireballs was cooler. When Aang had shown Zuko how he was doing with his marbles, acorns and pebbles, Zuko must have been in a really good mood, because he’d shown Aang that he could make little flames dance around his fingers.

The vegetarian _chahan_ was tasty enough to put Aang in a pretty good mood of his own, and he felt like showing Zuko his appreciation by helping him pack his stuff up. Zuko looked a bit annoyed at having to let Aang help him out, but when Aang pointed out that his leg was hurt, he reluctantly agreed to let Aang put his stuff on Appa.

Eventually, a knock came on their door, and Aang opened it to let Sokka and Katara in. Sokka seemed pretty smug about how they’d packed up their room and were waiting on Aang and Zuko, but Aang got to tell him that they’d already packed up _ages_ ago. Hah!

Sokka had seemed annoyed at that. “But you’re _injured_ ,” he complained, shooting Zuko a dirty look. “You’re not supposed to be able to do stuff _quickly_.”

“Maybe I didn’t,” Zuko replied. “Maybe I got up early and was _productive_.”

Sokka seemed to consider something for a few moments before he shook his head. “Yeah, I still prefer having lie-ins.”

“So do I,” Katara agreed from the hallway, where she was standing with a bunch of bags. “But I _would_ prefer a little help with our stuff, Sokka. If you wouldn’t mind?”

“I can grab some of those!” Aang said. He took a step forward, eager to help, before Sokka put a hand out on his shoulder.

“Actually, buddy, you should probably help Zuko with his,” he said, giving Zuko another smug look. “Poor guy’s helpless as a polar bear dog puppy.”

“Fuck off,” Zuko said. Katara took a menacing step forward, and he pointed at Sokka. “He started it!”

Katara considered it before turning her glare on Sokka.

“I literally almost died yesterday,” Sokka defended himself. “Come on, sis, give me a _break_. It was totally his fault.”

“It was my birthday!” Zuko insisted as The Glare went back on him. “ _And_ I’m injured!”

Katara groaned and turned around. “ _Whatever_. I give up. Sokka, you can help Zuko with his bags. Aang, can you come and help me with these? We’ll leave the men to figure out whose fault it is.”

“How’s it our fault?” Sokka cried out.

“You’re men,” Katara sniffed. “It’s always your fault.”

Aang was a bit peeved that he apparently didn’t count as one of the _men_ , but at least Katara seemed quite keen on spending time catching up with him at last. She kept asking him how he was doing and whether he was feeling okay, and what the Southern Air Temple had been like when he’d lived there a hundred years ago. Aang told her that he was doing okay even though he was feeling a little tired, and she was really sympathetic. She said she knew how he was feeling, because she was feeling kind of tired, too. Then they talked about the Southern Air Temple, and it was really nice.

Aang was a little miffed when Zuko and Sokka turned up, but Katara got a _lot_ miffed, because Zuko was carrying his own stuff, whilst Sokka was only carrying his.

“I thought I told you to help Zuko with his stuff!” She scolded him.

“I _tried_ , sis,” he protested. “I _did_ , I swear, but I’m just super _tired_ , and those bags are _heavy_.”

“It’s fine, Katara,” Zuko said as he tried to hoist a bag up onto Appa. Aang took it off him and airbent it up to save him the effort. “Thanks, Aang.”

“It’s _not_ fine,” Katara looked _extremely_ unimpressed with Sokka. Aang had been the one to accidentally wake her up early, but Sokka was the one she was mad at. He knew it was a bit unfair, but Katara could be _scary_ , and he was pretty okay with Sokka getting that.

“Well, we’re all here now,” Zuko said, boosting himself up into Appa’s saddle with a grunt. “So let’s get moving.”

Aang grinned and hopped up to sit up front with Appa. He didn’t know where they were heading, but he couldn’t wait to find out!

…

“Makapu, Aang. We said _Makapu_.”

Aang grinned nervously and gave a little giggle. “I guess I forgot where we were going?”

Zuko sighed and resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands. “I’m not going to throw you off Appa, because Uncle would be mad.”

“And because I’m an airbender,” Aang reminded him.

“That too,” Zuko acknowledged. “If I chucked you off, I’d want you to fall.”

“I’m actually really sorry, Zuko. I just forgot – honest!”

Zuko tried to keep his temper, because he didn’t think Appa would appreciate it if he accidentally set him on fire. Plus, Aang would get mad at that, and even though he was _not_ in Zuko’s good books, he still didn’t want him to make that sad face Momo always made.

“Well, we’ve got to land _somewhere_ soon,” he glanced back at Sokka and Katara in the saddle. “I don’t think Sokka’s doing okay.”

“I don’t know what’s going on with him,” Aang looked a bit nervous. “Is he going to be all right?”

“He’ll be fine,” Zuko reassured him. “It’s probably just because he were out on the boat in that storm last night. He got cold, and then he got sick.”

“But I was out in the storm, and I’m not sick.”

“You’re an airbender,” Zuko pointed out. “You can regulate your body temperature with your breathing. That’s why you aren’t feeling it.”

Aang looked thoughtful. “When I was at the South Pole, I didn’t feel cold – even when I was just in my monk robes and Sokka said I was crazy.”

Zuko blinked and looked at Aang with new consideration. It had taken Uncle a long time to teach Zuko the breath of fire – or, rather, it had taken Zuko a long time to respond to Uncle’s patient lessons. But Aang had been able to warm himself with his breathing, apparently instinctively.

“That’s really impressive,” he said. “That you could do that without conscious effort.”

Aang beamed. “Thanks!”

“But you’ve managed to get us _lost_ without conscious effort, too,” Zuko reminded him.

That made him wilt a little bit. “Yeah, I know. Sorry.”

Aang _did_ look apologetic about it, so Zuko _did_ restrain himself from yelling at the kid for just taking Appa in whatever direction took his fancy. “It’s fine. Just… just keep flying.”

“Are you sure?”

“Sure.”

“Because Appa’s feeling pretty good, I don’t think he’d mind if we just turned around –”

“Just look for landmarks, Aang,” Zuko instructed him. “We’ll figure out where we are sooner or later.”

“Oh, okay.” Aang pointed out something to the east. “Is that the sort of landmark you’re talking about?”

Zuko had to shift to peer across Aang and see what he was pointing at. The ruins of a city, with crumbling pillars and sprawling paths across the landscape. “Yeah, that’ll do.”

“Where are we?” Katara asked, leaning over the saddle to join them. “Is that Makapu?”

“It’s Taku,” Zuko informed her.

“Looks kind of…” Katara wrinkled her nose. “Abandoned.”

Zuko sighed. “It was the centre of distribution for cargo throughout the entire Earth Kingdom a hundred years ago, so it was one of the first places the Fire Nation attacked.”

Katara’s frown became darker, and her distaste turned to open disgust. “Figures,” she spat.

Zuko tried not to let Katara’s outright hatred for the Fire Nation get to him. When he’d been a child, he’d thought the Water Tribes had been peasants, hiding from the world in their ice huts like little more than barbarians. Meanwhile, the Fire Nation had been the real barbarians – attacking Sokka and Katara’s home and rounding up and killing waterbenders.

Zuko couldn’t really blame her for hating the Nation that wanted her dead, but it still hurt to hear her hate the land he had talked about last night as they ate _chahan_.

“Well, it’s abandoned, anyway,” he continued on. “So we should be okay to set down there and see what we can find to help Sokka.”

Uncle’s medical supplies would have come in handy right about now, he reflected. It had been a shame that they’d had to use them all up on his injured leg because of that utter _prick_ Jet.

“Can you go out and try and find some ginger root, Aang?” He asked as Appa began his slow descent. “I’ll need it for Sokka’s tea.”

Aang nodded. “Sure!”

“And can you put _conscious effort_ into it?”

The small monk laughed like Zuko had just told the world’s most _hilarious_ joke. “I promise to bring back some random forest plant so you can try and make it into tea, Zuko.”

An unwilling smile twitched at the corner of Zuko’s mouth.

Aang spotted it, and pointed excitedly. “You smiled!”

“Aang, please,” Katara groaned. “Can you keep the noise down?”

But Aang ignored her, much to her and Zuko’s displeasure. “You nearly laughed!” He insisted. “I _knew_ you had a sense of humor in there, Hotman!”

“Alright, Aang, that’s _enough_ ,” Zuko stressed as Appa set down in the village. “Ginger root. Go find it.”

Aang nodded, and with a final concerned look at Sokka, ran off into the forest.

“Is he going to be okay?” Katara asked, looking after him. “If the Fire Nation were here, is it really safe for him to wander off alone?”

“He’ll be fine,” Zuko reassured her. “That attack was a hundred years ago. There’s an entire mountain between us and Pohuai.”

“What’s Pohuai?” Katara asked as she helped Sokka down from Appa’s back. The boy was mumbling something about food that ate people, and kicking the ocean’s bony butt. Zuko decided he didn’t want to know.

“Pohuai Stronghold,” he explained. “It’s a base for the Fire Nation in the western Earth Kingdom. It’s got troops, and supplies…” _And information_ , he realized as he trailed off.

“But we’re safe here,” he continued distractedly as an idea formed in his mind.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Zuko gave her a smile which he hoped looked more encouraging than threatening. Azula’s smiles had _always_ looked threatening, even when she was little. “Aang will be back with the ginger root, and we’ll be able to deal with Sokka’s fever. Easy.”

Katara seemed a bit mollified as she soaked one of her cloths and turned her attention to Sokka. “This should bring your fever down.”

“You know what I love about Appa the most?” Sokka slurred. “His sense of humor.”

“That's nice,” Katara nodded seriously. “I'll tell him.”

She looked up and gave Zuko a big grin. He gave her another quick smile and a nod. Yeah, he was enjoying this, too.

Appa let out a rumble, and Sokka laughed. “Classic Appa.”

Zuko allowed himself a little chuckle too, as he tried to figure out how the Blue Spirit could get into Pohuai.


	30. Chapter 30

Sokka was standing upside down the right way up, and he was feeling surprisingly okay about that. He was pretty sure he was wearing Aang’s monk robes, and even though they felt a bit short, they _did_ allow for more ventilation to his private parts than the half-dozen layers he always needed to wear at the South Pole. That was a relief, because he didn’t think Aang would be happy with him if he ended up sweating all over his robes.

Then the robes fell down over his face because he was upside down, so he decided it was time to move _sideways_ , but apparently the rock wasn’t very okay with that. Well, Sokka wasn’t very okay with the rock!

_Take that, you rock!_

Why was a rock even tough? He wondered. What if a rock was just… soft?

Like a cloud?

Sokka thought about it for a moment, but that was apparently a bad idea, because then all the clouds fell down. Oops. He hoped Aang wouldn’t be too mad about that. But at least the sky was nice and clear now, with all the clouds out of the way. Rain clouds, thunder clouds, rock clouds – Sokka had cleared them all away!

But something didn’t seem left. _Hmm_. Sokka sniffed around with his ears to taste what was going on, and took a long hard look with his nose, but he just couldn’t figure out what it was. In the end, he had to sing _goo-goo goo-joob_ fifty times until the floating Pai Sho tile told him what the weird thing was: he could see the clouds.

If he’d gotten rid of all the clouds, why was he still looking up at clouds? That was totally unfair! He didn’t want to see clouds! He had half a mind to complain to the store manager and get a full refund for the nine silver pieces he’d spent in this dream. Sokka closed his eyes so he could see something new.

So now he was looking at a crococat spinning round in a circle, telling him to _picture yourself in a boat on a river_ , whatever that meant. Silly crococat – didn’t you know that boats don’t work unless you fill them with jerky first?

Oh, wait – now it was _two_ crococats spinning round in a circle around Sokka as he sat on a throne. Was it his throne? Was Sokka the King? These were questions for other people to figure out; Sokka was just sitting there as crococats did their thing.

But then the King got annoyed and told Sokka that pink was the _in_ color this season, even though Aang was a sad lemur. Aang the upside down lemur. Aanging around

_Who's this "Aang" kid you keep talking about, Your Highness?_

Wait a minute!

If Sokka was upside down the right way up… And _Aang_ was upside down… did that mean Sokka was Aang?

The only way to test this was to look at his reflection in the soft rock – oh my slush on a stick!

Sokka had gone bald and there was a big blue arrow painted on his head!

Aw, man, and the King had said that _pink_ was the in color this season!

Blue and pink looked _horrible_ together, he lamented sadly to the otter penguin taking notes in his office. The only way they looked nice was when Suki was blushing. Mmm, Suki. Sokka loved it when she beat him up.

But then the lemur tapped him on his upside-down shoulder and sadly said that he needed to go otter penguin sledding. Oh, man, Sokka was gonna show that crococat how to sled off a cliff! He was gonna get some serious Aang time.

But then a big hook sword came out of nowhere and tripped him up and ruined his Aang time.

_Aang, how was your trip? Did you make any new friends?_

Well, at least when Sokka fell off the otter penguin, he landed upside down the _wrong_ way up in his watch tower. It was a super impressive watch tower made out of whalebone and golden fans. He added an extra watch tower on top made out of blue genamite crystals so he could make his tower taller than the Gan Jins tower, but then they put him in time-out. The Zhangs got mad at him too.

So he told them about this guy named Jet, and they made him King of the arrows. That was nice. He got to wave his hand and make pretty sparkles appear. Mmm, pretty colors that definitely weren’t blue and pink. He thought they might have been… boomerang.

Was boomerang a color? He decided it should be, so it was. At least until a bison told him boomerangs only had a thirty-one day return policy, so then it vanished. Ugh, _lame_.

He wanted to speak to the manager!

But the manager didn’t want to speak to him, and they gave Sokka a whole bunch of reasons why that was. Apparently they reserved the right to refuse to serve anyone who didn’t smell of cabbages. Whatever, Sokka wasn’t going to judge. He _ate_ cabbages, he didn’t rub them under his armpits or anything like that!

Or _over_ his armpits, because he was upside-down the right way up. Everything made sense when Sokka looked at it like that.

There was a cake, and it looked real nice. _Reeeeeaaaal_ nice. _It_ was speaking to Sokka. Calling him to eat it. In fact, it was telling him to eat it. It was right there, spelled out in currants. EAT. ME.

Sokka wasn’t feeling hungry, though. That was when he realized it was a dream and woke up.

_Ribbit_.

…

Zuko’s injured leg had slowed him down a little, but he had managed to sneak through the forest to Pohuai through the time-honored combination of stealth, observation, and underpaid soldiers who were bored and distracted. There were a few close calls, especially when he’d stepped on a twig only a couple of feet away from one soldier and had to dodge an overly-enthusiastic fire blast. Still, he’d gotten changed into his dark outfit, and he was ready to make his move.

Getting in was actually the hard part, but he’d managed to keep clutching onto the underside of a wagon until the moment came to scramble up into the back of the cart, and he’d taken the opportunity to adjust the cloth he’d tied around his calf to keep his bandages steady. The last thing he needed was for his leg to suddenly give way from underneath him in the middle of one of the most secure Fire Nation strongholds in the entire Earth Kingdom.

Zuko hadn’t tried Pohuai before, but he’d broken into the Fire Nation navy outpost in the Mo Ce Sea when he was fourteen, and he was relieved to see that this complex followed the same layout. Once he was in, he quickly made his way to the sixth floor – commanding officers’ work stations.

Disaster struck when Zuko could hear voices approaching. He cast about wildly, but it was a long, straight corridor. Nowhere to hide –

But there was a raised section that ran across the length of the ceiling. Zuko found it a bit of an effort to vault up and wedge himself into it, but he took the opportunity to remember that Jet was a total prick.

He paused as two guards passed below, chattering about Yin’s promotion and how lucky she was to have such a supportive girlfriend back home, _even if she is a total hardass_. She’d made Jian weld the hot water pipes shut _without firebending – like I said; awesome new captain, total hardass_ …

Zuko breathed quietly as the voices faded, and dropped down into the corridor again to keep moving. At the end of the corridor, he had to remove a set of panels from the ceiling to clamber up into an air vent. When he dropped into the office, he wasted no time in rifling through the paperwork on the desk.

Files, scrolls, internal notifications and hastily-scrawled memos, the lot. Advance on rations requested in anticipation of a new company of non-bending soldiers… training report on the Yuyan Archers… Corporal Jian disciplined for disrespect towards commanding officer – man, Jian seemed to be in _all_ _sorts_ of trouble – signed by said commanding officer…

_Admiral Zhao_.

“Shit,” Zuko cursed quietly, dropping the paperwork. If Zhao was here in Pohuai, all bets were off. He had to be _thorough_.

Zhao had been busy, he discovered. There was a report from a Fire Nation captain in Gaipan detailing how a Water Tribe boy on a flying bison had alerted the village to a terrorist plot. So Zhao knew Sokka was still travelling with the Avatar – but then, they’d _had_ to blow their cover, there hadn’t been any other option. An anonymous, badly misspelled letter and a more neatly-written transcript of the contents with amended spelling – apparently, a bunch of pirates were putting a contract hit out on a waterbender who had been travelling with the Avatar, although Zuko noted with some satisfaction that there was no record of what the waterbender had done to irritate them quite that much. And an official document noting the termination of Warden Okada’s tenure on board a Fire Nation prison rig after failing to control an uprising, which had a few words scrawled on it in a jagged hand.

_Water Tribe. Necklace. Avatar. June_.

“Shit,” Zuko repeated, dropping the files. He’d met June before, and he knew she’d take any job if the price was right. If Zhao had Katara’s necklace – if that _bastard_ had her _mother’s necklace_ –

Zuko had nothing of his mother’s. _Nothing_. Even his _prajiad_ had been uniform. If Zhao had done _anything_ to that necklace…

He didn’t find anything in the first two drawers of the desk, but the third was locked, and could only be opened by bending fire precisely into the lock. Quite what Zhao was doing, trying to kid himself that he was a _precise_ firebender, Zuko didn’t quite know. But he _did_ know bending, after nearly three years of Uncle’s lessons, and he sent a quick burst of flame into the mechanism.

There was a knotted black pouch, and Zuko breathed a sigh of relief as he opened it to find a necklace on a blue strap. It had the elemental symbol for water carved into the stone, he noticed – before snapping out of his appraisal. Uncle had always said there was a time and a place for everything, but he doubted that even Uncle, with all his talk about the elements, would think that _when you’re sneaking around in Pohuai Stronghold_ was the time or the place to carry out an impromptu appraisal of a precious stone.

Besides, it wasn’t his necklace, and something told him Katara wouldn’t have wanted him to be staring at it. He wouldn’t have wanted anyone else eyeing up anything of his mom’s, either.

He pocketed the necklace and got back to work. There was a handwritten memo with a list of bullet points that Zuko couldn’t make any sense of – _place, fish, spirit, moon_ – but he couldn’t find anything else in the office.

If that dick Zhao had been promoted to Admiral now, two things became clear. First, that the Fire Nation Army was getting _desperate_. If bloody _Zhao_ could somehow end up with the same kind of command as Uncle Iroh, the standards for military rank had seriously dropped.

And second, that the stakes had somehow managed to get even higher. He needed to get that ginger root from the herbalist’s institute, and then they needed to get to Jeong Jeong as quickly as possible. No more hanging around, no more getting side-tracked, and _definitely_ no more of Aang’s laissez-faire approach to directions and destinations.

Zuko turned his head as he heard voices approaching. He had to move fast, and he’d barely been able to wriggle his way back up into the air vent and close it behind him before he heard raised voices.

“And I’m telling _you_ , Colonel –” Zuko recognized Zhao’s voice, the dickhead. “Pohuai Stronghold may be under your command, but make no mistake, I _am_ your commanding officer. _I_ will be interrogating the Avatar, and _I_ will be sending the message to the Fire Lord informing him of the Avatar’s capture.”

_Shit_.

“Now,” Zhao sounded triumphant. It pissed Zuko off. “Take me to him!”

…

Aang hadn’t been able to find any ginger root, but he _had_ been able to find a map, and apparently there was a herbalist institute on top of the mountain. He could get there and back on his air scooter pretty quickly, but Zuko had quickly shut him down.

“You were pretty tired this morning, Aang,” he’d explained. “And you had a really intense night last night. You need to rest up. I’ll go check it out – you stay here, okay?”

“Are you sure?” Aang knew Zuko’s leg wasn’t fully healed, and an air scooter would be _much_ quicker.

“I’m sure,” Zuko had nodded. “I don’t want to just sit around. I’ll be back before too long – I promise.”

Well, it was now, like, a whole _two hours_ later, and Aang was getting pretty sure Zuko had gotten lost, or something. He hadn’t even taken the map with him! That hadn’t been like Zuko – he always liked to know where things were, but maybe he had left the map behind so Sokka could have a look at it. _Everyone_ knew Sokka loved maps.

But kind of the whole point of going to the herbalist had been that Sokka was getting sick and he wasn’t himself, so Aang wasn’t sure why Sokka would need the map right about now. When he’d asked Sokka if he wanted the map, Sokka had just started laughing and reciting the letters M-A-P to himself.

That had given Aang an idea, and he’d started practicing with his marbles, acorns and pebbles again. But now it was two hours later, and Katara was getting sick too!

“Not you, too!” Aang cried in dismay.

“Relax,” Katara said. “It was just a little cough. I'm fine –”

“That's how Sokka started yesterday,” Aang pointed out. “Now look at him! He thinks he's an earthbender!”

“Take that, you rock!” Sokka garbled, swinging his hands up in the air.

Aang came to a decision. He wasn’t sure where Zuko was, but he couldn’t wait any longer. “A few more hours and you'll be talking nonsense, too. I'm going to go find some medicine!”

He grabbed his glider, and he was about to run off when lightning flashed across the sky. Yikes!

“Maybe it’s better if I go on foot,” he came to another decision. Appa and Momo could take care of the guys in his absence.

Aang set off running, using his airbending to make him go faster. He had to stop a few times to read the map and correct his course a few times, including one pretty embarrassing time when he figured out he’d actually been going south and not north like he’d meant to. Whoops!

But he got to the herbalist’s institute on top of the mountain eventually. “Hello! I'm sorry to barge in like this, but I need some medicine for my friends, they have fevers and they were coughing –”

“Settle down, young man,” the herbalist interrupted him calmly. “Your friends are going to be fine. I've been up here for over forty years you know, used to be others, but they all left years ago.” She started to pet her cat, who started to purr. “Now it's just me and Miyuki.”

Normally, Aang _loved_ pets, and especially pets that looked as loveable as Miyuki. But he was in kind of a hurry!

“Um,” he said. “That’s nice.”

“Wounded Earth Kingdom troops still come by now and again, brave boys,” the herbalist continued, before she gave Aang a big smile. “And thanks to my remedies they always leave in better shape they when they arrive.”

“That’s nice,” Aang said again. He just wanted her to hurry up!

Ugh, this old woman was so _slow!_ Instead of making Aang a cure so he could go and save his friends, she had made her cat dinner!

Aang loved pets, but Miyuki was beginning to look a lot less loveable if the herbalist kept this up! Why was she spending so much time looking after her cat and not helping Aang find a cure for his friends?

“Well, all they need are some frozen wood frogs,” the herbalist told him. “There's plenty down in the valley swamp.”

“What am I supposed to do with frozen frogs?” Aang asked, completely stumped.

“Why, suck on them of course!”

_Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!_

Aang didn’t care if frog skins secreted a substance that would cure Katara and Sokka, he was _never_ getting sick again!

But he didn’t have any time to waste, so he ran off to try and find the frogs. But just as he managed to find one of the frogs, a whole bunch of arrows came out of nowhere and almost pinned him to a tree!

“Longshot?” He asked confusedly, but then he yelped as another load of arrows came flying towards him. Unless Longshot had, like, five identical twins, this wasn’t Longshot!

So now he had to try and run away from whoever was shooting arrows at him whilst trying to find frozen frogs in a swamp. He wondered if Avatar Roku had ever needed to do something like that. He didn’t think so; Roku had seemed like an Avatar who’d known what was up.

Aang had managed to get a few frogs – he wasn’t sure if it counted as a couple or a bunch – before some more arrows had come at him, and pinned him to a rock. Then he found himself having a net thrown over him.

Monkeyfeathers, he thought to himself as he was dragged along the ground. This was really bad. But then it got worse. They took him to a Fire Nation army base and chained him up in a prison cell. Shoot!

Aang bet Sokka and Zuko would know some really creative swear words that would come in handy right about now. All he had was _monkeyfeathers_. Or _monkey-monkey-monkeyfeathers_ if things were really bad.

Well, things right now were really bad!

_And_ they got worse. That guy Zhao from the Fire Temple showed up, and he looked mad!

“So this is the great Avatar,” he said. “Master of all the elements. I don't know how you've managed to elude the Fire Nation for a hundred years, but your little game of hide and seek is over.”

“I've never hidden from you!” Aang shouted back. “Untie me, and I'll fight you right now!”

Aang didn’t want to fight Zhao, but he would if he had to. Annoyingly, before the Great Divide, he could have just lied and _said_ he’d fight Zhao if he untied him, before actually _escaping_ when Zhao untied him. But now Zuko and Katara and Sokka had said he couldn’t do that.

But then Zhao said a whole bunch of awful things about the Air Nomads, and Aang got _really_ angry. He took a deep breath and blew it at Zhao. Nobody said awful things about the Air Nomads to Aang!

“Blow all the wind you want,” Zhao sneered as he opened the door to leave Aang’s prison cell. “But your resistance is futile. There is no escaping this fortress, and no one is coming to rescue you.”

It was at that point that someone in a blue mask popped up behind him and punched him in the face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘Goo-goo goo-joob’ is from the Beatles’ ‘[I Am the Walrus](https://open.spotify.com/track/6Pq9MmkDQYZiiCDpxnvrf6)’; ‘Picture yourself in a boat on the river’ is from the Beatles’ ‘[ Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds](https://open.spotify.com/track/25yQPHgC35WNnnOUqFhgVR)’. Alice eats a cake labelled ‘EAT ME’ in Chapter 1 of [_Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland#Synopsis).


	31. Chapter 31

For a few moments after Zhao collapsed to the floor in a heap, Aang and the Blue Spirit just looked at each other in silence. Then, the Blue Spirit pulled out two swords and raised them over their head before running towards him.

_Monkey-monkey-monkeyfeatheeeeeerrrrrsssss!!_

Aang was too young to die! He knew he was a hundred and twelve, but a hundred of those years didn’t count!

He yelled in fear as the swords flashed in front of him, and continued yelling until the Blue Spirit shoved a hand over his mouth.

Oh. He was still alive. And possibly getting slobber over the Blue Spirit’s hand.

Well, this was embarrassing.

The Blue Spirit went on to cut away the rest of Aang’s bonds, and pulled him along behind them to the door.

“Hey!” Aang struggled and pulled himself away. “Mind out! I’ve got frogs!”

The Blue Spirit paused and cocked their head at him, so he pulled one of the frogs out of his tunic to demonstrate. “The herbalist said I need to get my friends to suck on them so they can get better, they got sick in a storm and – hey!”

The Blue Spirit apparently had no regard for the medicinal properties of frogs, because they had turned around and kept walking. Aang hurried after them, only pausing to stick his tongue out at the unconscious Zhao as he lay on the floor.

When he’d gotten out of the cell, the Blue Spirit shut the door and locked it before leading Aang through a couple of corridors. Aang was really impressed by how they seemed to know their way around Fire Nation fortresses. They led him to the end of a corridor and made a gesture. Aang thought it meant for him to stand back, so he did. Then they stood there for a moment until it became awkward.

Then the Blue Spirit gestured for him to move forward. Aang wasn’t sure what they were trying to do, but he stepped forward anyway, and waited for what they’d do next.

The Blue Spirit let out a sigh that sounded irritated, and turned to face Aang with their hands on their hips. Zuko and Sokka did that when Aang had done something that annoyed them, but Aang wasn’t even doing anything this time!

“What?” He protested. “You’re not telling me what to do! It’s not _my_ fault I’m not a mind-reader!”

But he was the Avatar, Aang remembered. Maybe mind-reading was one of those Avatar powers he hadn’t yet discovered. If there wasn’t any reason he couldn’t read the Blue Spirit’s mind to find out what they wanted him to do, he’d be able to do it, right?

He concentrated hard for a few moments, until the Blue Spirit reached out a hand and gave him a rough shake.

“Okay, okay!” He muttered, rubbing his shoulder. The way the Blue Spirit was standing, with irritation coming off them in waves, he didn’t _need_ to be a mind-reader to figure out what they were thinking.

The Blue Spirit pointed at the door, then moved their hand to point really closely at the lock. Then they mimed a punch.

“Oh, the door’s _locked_.” Aang got it now! “Oh, I thought you were just telling me where to _stand_ … Yeah, sure, I’ll stay out of your way whilst you punch it!”

The Blue Spirit tilted their head back, but Aang still couldn’t see anything under the mask. They let out a loud sigh, before looking at Aang again and miming another punch at the door.

“You want me to punch it?”

The Blue Spirit nodded, and prodded the arrow tattoo on Aang’s head. _Oh_ , they wanted him to punch it! With airbending!

Aang took a deep breath, and took a step back to ready himself. He would have wanted his staff so he could get a good _whack_ at the door, but this would have to do. With a quick move forward, and a big _punch_ , he got the door to blast backwards.

The Blue Spirit was already on their way, waving at Aang to follow them down a staircase. Suddenly, they were in the courtyard, and the Blue Spirit was prizing up a piece of grating to hop down into what looked like a sewer. Aang was relieved that it didn’t smell too bad – otherwise, he might have seriously considered going back to the prison cell and getting Zhao so he could drag him through the sewer with them.

When the Blue Spirit helped Aang climb up and out of the sewer, they pointed at the wall, and then at themselves. Then, they made another punch gesture.

“Uh… You want me to bend you up there?”

The Blue Spirit nodded.

Aang wasn’t sure about that. He’d told Zuko and Sokka back at the prison rig that he could bend those big rocks with his airbending, so he couldn’t see any reason why he couldn’t bend a person. But big rocks didn’t feel pain like people, and he didn’t really want to make the Blue Spirit whack into a wall.

But Aang couldn’t see any reason why he _couldn’t_ do it, so… maybe he could?

“Okay,” he tried to sound more confident than he felt. “Sure – no problem.”

He took a deep breath, and let the wind dance through him.

The Blue Spirit was pretty heavy, he realized as he lifted them into the air. They were heavier than Sokka, and _way_ heavier than Katara. But Monk Gyatso had told him that he shouldn’t ask someone about their health, because it might offend them, so Aang didn’t say anything. Besides, they were in a Fire Nation prison. They had to be quiet.

Aang concentrated, and managed to lift the Blue Spirit up onto the top of the wall. He’d done it! He’d _really_ had to concentrate, but he’d done it!

He could still see two more walls to get through, though, so he just turned to the Blue Spirit.

“Do you think I could just bend you _right_ over the walls?” He asked quietly. “Like – all at once?”

The Blue Spirit seemed quite alarmed at this, and waved their hands agitatedly. _No_. _No way!_

“Okay, fine, alright,” Aang muttered. “I was just asking.”

The Blue Spirit pointed down at the ground, and then back to Aang. He nodded, and hopped down, using airbending to cushion his fall. Then, he turned to look up at the Blue Spirit. They jumped down, and he bent them a cushion of air, just like when Zuko was coming down from Appa on his injured leg. He’d also done it for Sokka a few times, but Katara had made them stop doing it when Sokka had started trying somersaults.

The Blue Spirit led Aang along the bottom of the wall, keeping to the shadows, until they broke into a run and made it to the next wall. Then, they turned back to him. Aang had a pretty good idea of what they wanted this time. “Do you want me to bend you up again?”

The Blue Spirit nodded, but made a more forceful gesture this time. Aang frowned. “Quicker this time?”

The Blue Spirit nodded again. Aang wasn’t sure if he could do it much more quickly whilst keeping his focus, but he could give it a go.

“Okay.” He took a breath, and reached for the wind. “Hold on tight!”

…

It was only due to Master Piandao’s intensive training that Zuko didn’t yell out in shock when Aang hoisted him into the air.

It was just so _bizarre_ to suddenly find himself floating. It was like the times his family had visited Ember Island when he was little, and he’d gone swimming with Lu Ten and his little sister. Aang was bending the air around him to support his weight, but it made it harder for Zuko to move as the air grew denser around him.

This made things rather difficult when his head rose up above the parapet of the wall and he came face to face with a rather surprised guard. Zuko’s mask muffled the way he swore as the guard’s eyes widened and they opened their mouth to shout.

 _I knew this was going too smoothly_.

He’d thought he was being really smart when he had locked Zhao in the cell to buy them some time. But apparently, even when he thought things through, the universe still had it out for him.

At least he’d be able to rub it in Uncle’s smug face if he made it out of here.

He landed on the top of the wall and unsheathed his swords as two more soldiers came running up to meet him. He had to fight them back to allow Aang room to land on the wall behind him, and he kept pressing them back until he could see that Aang had jumped down into the next courtyard.

“Jump!” Aang shouted. “I’ll catch you!”

Zuko _sincerely_ hoped the Avatar was as good as his word, and made one final warning slash to buy himself some space before he leapt off the wall. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he closed his eyes as he fell.

Aang didn’t do a _great_ job in cushioning his fall, and Zuko felt the air leave his lungs in a _whoosh_ as he landed on his side and rolled. But he didn’t _feel_ anything break, and he still had full control of his digits, so he figured that was good enough.

“Come on!” Aang said rather unnecessarily, as he raced over the courtyard. Zuko followed behind at as fast a jog as he could reasonably manage. His left pant leg felt sticky, and he knew that his wound must have reopened. They only had one more wall to get through, though. They only had one more wall, and then they were out.

Aang skidded to a halt as he came face-to-face with a marauding soldier, and Zuko had to move quickly to slice the spearpoint off. He slammed an elbow into the side of her helmet, and she crumpled to the ground. Aang darted forward and grabbed the spear, spinning it in his hands like a makeshift staff.

There were too many soldiers, Zuko realized with a sinking feeling. Too many of them. They couldn’t both get away. He’d have to hold them off.

He tapped Aang on the shoulder and handed him Katara’s necklace. Aang stared at it open-mouthed for a moment, and Zuko had to dance around him to incapacitate another soldier. Shouts and yells were coming from his right.

He had to duck an especially wild attempt at swordplay to avoid his premature decapitation, and lashed out with his leg, barely managing not to yell at the way it jarred his wound.

“This is my friend Katara’s necklace!”

Zuko was _well aware_ of that! He whirled around and turned to face Aang, pointing his sword at the last wall, the one that stood between them and freedom.

_You have to go. Get out of here!_

“What? No!” Aang shook his head. “I’m not leaving you behind!”

Zuko approved, honestly. But Aang had to _go_.

He had to shove Aang out of the way of a spear that whistled past them. He grunted as someone tackled him to the ground – but Aang must have sent a gust of wind at them, because as soon as their weight fell on him, they were gone with a shout. Zuko struggled to his feet to see them lying on the ground, fifteen feet away.

This was Zuko’s fault, he realized grimly. If he’d just gone to the herbalist and gotten whatever herbs Sokka had needed, instead of sneaking into Pohuai, Aang wouldn’t even have left the camp. Sure, Zhao would probably have caught up to them sooner or later, but they would have been able to handle that. Instead, Zuko had snuck off as the Blue Spirit and gotten them both stuck in Pohuai.

 _Ugh_. Zhao was going to be _unbearable_.

He jabbed his sword at the wall again, before turning to face the onrushing horde. If he could just hold them off until Aang was over the wall…

 _Never forget who you are_ , he reminded himself. _You are someone who keeps fighting even though it's hard._

He tightened his grip on his swords and prepared to charge.

_Never give up without a fight._

“Hang on!”

_What?_

Zuko didn’t even have time to react before he found himself airborne.

All of Master Piandao’s intensive stealth training couldn’t stop him yelling in shock and fear as the Avatar airbent him over the wall of Pohuai Stronghold straight into a forty-foot drop into the treeline.

_Agni fucking damn it I swear to Agni Aang you fucking maniac AANG –_

He crashed into the canopy and tumbled through what seemed like the entire forest’s worth of branches, twigs, leaves, and other pointy and inconvenient objects before landing with a _thud_. He couldn’t breathe for a moment as he stared up at the trees, and then he couldn’t breathe for a whole _other_ reason once he’d realized what had happened.

He struggled up to his feet. _If Aang was still in there –_

“The Avatar has escaped!”

 _Oh, thank Agni_.

Zuko sagged in relief, and tore his mask off so he could hide his face in the sleeve of his tunic. For a moment there, he’d been _terrified_.

Zuko allowed himself a wheezing laugh as he limped away in the direction of his hidden stash of clothes.

 _Fuck you, Zhao_. He’d been waiting _years_ to say that.

…

Katara had woken up to the _extremely_ unpleasant surprise of her mouth tasting like live frog. _Disgusting!_

She’d spat it out with a cry, and almost fell over from how loudly Sokka was complaining about how Aang had somehow managed to find a source of meat that tasted unpleasant.

“But you said it was tasty!” Aang defended himself. “I heard you!”

“Tasty is a _lie!_ ” Sokka shouted dramatically. “Everything is a lie – standing upside down will _not_ guarantee you a full refund!”

Katara had heard all kinds of weird things come out of her brother’s mouth, but that one might actually have topped them all. “What?”

“Nothing,” Sokka sighed, looking down at his feet sadly. “Just a dream I was having.”

Katara wasn’t sure if she wanted to ask anything more about the dream, but she was distracted by Zuko stepping into their shelter. He looked even grumpier than usual, and he was limping.

“Zuko!” Aang sprang up and ran over to him. “Zuko, where _were_ you? I waited for _ages_ and I thought you’d gotten lost, so I went looking for you –”

“I _know_ you went off, Aang!” Zuko snapped back, looking _really_ mad. “I _told_ you to stay here, but you went _off!_ ”

“Um…” Aang shrank back. “Sorry? But I got these frogs for Katara and Sokka, see? And they sucked on them –”

“The worst thing I’ve ever had in my mouth, ever,” Sokka interjected.

“And they’re okay now!” Aang finished, pointing to Katara to demonstrate his point. “See?”

She didn’t much appreciate being treated like a human trophy, so she tried to sit forward and pay closer attention to the conversation. “What took you so long, Zuko? It’s dark outside.”

Zuko looked a bit uncomfortable with the question. “Well, it took me a bit longer than I thought, and I, uh, ran into a few obstacles. And then my leg started bleeding, so –”

“Your leg’s hurt again?” Katara sighed and moved forward. “Zuko, you shouldn’t have even gone out there.”

“Well, neither should Aang,” Zuko grumbled, reluctantly submitting himself to her examination. “And I’m _fine._ I had a cloth bandage, but I guess it came loose –”

“I only went out because you were taking so long,” Aang pointed out. “And how’d you even know about that, huh? You weren’t there when I got back!”

Zuko tensed, and Katara was worried that he was going to do himself another mischief. “Zuko, hold still!”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I, uh – well, Sokka was chewing on a frog when I got back, so you obviously went out and got something for the sickness.”

“I think I’d honestly prefer being _sick_ ,” Sokka moaned.

“All of you, hush up,” Katara ordered. “I want some peace and quiet so I can make sure Zuko’s okay.”

“Zuko’s _fine_ ,” Aang sounded a bit put out. “He’s not the one who ended up in Pohuai…”

Zuko swore explosively as Katara gripped his calf. “ _Katara!_ ”

“Sorry!” She backed away before _she_ could do him a mischief. “It was an accident, I swear!” She turned to Aang. “You ended up in _Pohuai Stronghold?_ ”

“Stronghold?” Sokka laughed. “What – is that, like, some place lemurs go to go sledding?”

“It’s a Fire Nation military base,” Zuko supplied.

Sokka’s laugh trailed off into a strained gurgle.

“Aang, how did you end up there?” Katara demanded. “Did you get caught by the Fire Nation?”

“Uhh…” Aang’s eyes darted from her to Sokka to Zuko, before he looked up at the moon. “ _Man_ , is that the time?”

“Don’t do that, Aang,” Zuko said sternly. “Tell them what happened.”

Aang shuffled his feet. “I… kind of got captured by Zhao and he stuck me in a prison cell?”

“You _what?_ ” Sokka squawked. Katara thought she was going to be sick again!

“It’s okay, though!” Aang reassured them. “Honestly, it turned out okay! The Blue Spirit came in and saved me! They came in with this super cool pair of swords, and went _whoosh_ –” he demonstrated what appeared to be a pair of swords being swung. “And they got me out! And then I got them out by airbending them to safety –”

Zuko made a choking noise at that, and Katara could agree. “The Blue Spirit saved you from Zhao?”

“Yeah, Katara,” Aang nodded. “Look – I know you’re worried I got caught, and I’m sorry I got caught. But things turned out okay. In fact, they gave me something to give back to you.”

Aang reached into his robes and drew something out. “I don’t know how they got it, but they gave it to me before I made sure they got out safely –”

Katara could barely hear the way Zuko muttered _Agni fucking damn it_ , but she couldn’t care less about his awful language right now.

“My mother’s necklace,” she whispered as she took it from Aang. The navy cords, the azure stone, the symbol of her people carved into the stone – it was really here, she had it _back_.

“Thank you, Aang,” she managed weakly. “Really, I – thank you so much.”

Aang smiled at her. His gray eyes were sparkling with happiness that he could give her back this, the only thing she could have to remember her mother by. “That’s okay, Katara. It’s really the Blue Spirit you should be thanking.”

“Well, that’s really sweet of the Blue Spirit,” Katara smiled, feeling so happy and so fond of her boy. “Could you give him a kiss for me when you see him again?”

She leaned in quickly and pecked him on the cheek. He blushed and started shuffling his feet.

“I mean, you’re welcome, Katara,” he giggled. “But, um – how’d you know the Blue Spirit is a guy?”

Katara remembered the way she’d jumped to conclusions the last time she’d thought about who the Blue Spirit might have been. Now that the truth had come out, she couldn’t _believe_ she’d thought it might have been Jet.

“I’m pretty sure the Blue Spirit is a guy,” Sokka said, saving her from embarrassment. “Call it a hunch.”

She rolled her eyes and turned to stick her tongue out at her brother. “Just because they go around saving the day, you think it’s a _man_.”

“You thought so too,” Sokka pointed out. “It’s got nothing to do with being _manly_.”

“I’ve _seen_ them,” Katara replied primly. “And, not that it matters, but they looked a lot more manly than _you_."

“Look, Katara,” Zuko said in a long-suffering voice. “I hate to break up your _riveting_ conversation, but could you help me with my bandages, please?”

Oh – she’d completely forgotten about Zuko’s injury.

“Sorry, Zuko,” she apologized, going over to help him. “It’s just – this necklace means a lot to me, and I’m really glad to have it back.”

“I’m sure you are,” Zuko agreed as they sat down and Aang went off to get the medicine pack from Appa. “I’m glad you’ve been able to get it back.”

Zuko sounded sincere, but, then again, Jet had sounded sincere when he’d talked about her mother. But where Jet’s eyes had been dark and narrowed, Zuko’s eyes were warm and open.

Katara knew Zuko couldn’t understand what her mother’s necklace meant to her. But as she smiled and touched her neck again, feeling the reassuring, constant reminder of her mother’s love back with her again, she was too happy to let her hurt weigh her down.


	32. Chapter 32

Sokka had needed to wait until they were on Appa the next morning before he could talk to Zuko, and patience was _not_ his best-honed quality. Throwing a boomerang, sure, he could do that, no problem, but exercising patience? A bit more difficult.

The problem was compounded by the delicate nature of the conversation. If Sokka’s hunch was correct, he wanted this conversation to take place somewhere Zuko couldn’t run away from it. But Katara seemed extremely interested in sitting up front on Appa to talk to Aang about his misadventures in Pohuai, so Sokka figured now was as good a time as ever.

“By the way,” he began casually. “Thanks for getting Katara her necklace back.”

Okay, in hindsight, whilst he _had_ waited until they were in mid-flight to begin talking to Zuko, he probably should have waited until Zuko had finished his sticky bun.

“What did you say?” Zuko asked when he’d finished choking.

“Everything okay back there?” Katara asked.

“We’re fine!” Sokka called back cheerily. “All good back here!”

He turned back to Zuko, who was looking at him with a shocked expression on his face.

“I know you’re the Blue Spirit,” he said matter-of-factly, keeping his voice down. “I don’t know how you managed to find it, but that necklace is really important to her, and you got it back for her. Thanks, Zuko.”

“You’re welcome,” Zuko said. Then he kind of ruined it. “I mean, uh – what?” He laughed a little loudly. “The Blue Spirit? Me? You sure about that, Sokka?”

Sokka rolled his eyes. “Zuko, buddy, I’m not dumb.” He ticked them off. “The prison rig, the pirates, and now Pohuai. You weren’t there with us for any of them, and suddenly the Blue Spirit’s showing up? _Not_ subtle.”

“Jet wasn’t there with us for those places either,” Zuko argued. “Why aren’t you saying _Jet’s_ the Blue Spirit?”

Sokka almost laughed out loud at the thought. “Nice try, buddy. But that’s another thing. Katara didn’t mention the Blue Spirit using any weapons, but then your Uncle’s pal in Gaipan got you those fancy dao swords, and _suddenly_ the Blue Spirit’s busting Aang out with –” he waved his hands demonstratively. “ _Whoosh_ , swordbending slice.”

“Again, Jet used swords.”

Sokka didn’t even bother dignifying that with a response. Seriously, _how_ had Zuko managed to get away with this for so long, when he couldn’t lie to save his life?

“Aang and Katara weren’t there when I gave you that bag, so they haven’t got that piece of the puzzle, but seriously, man – that’s gotta be the _only_ reason they haven’t figured it out yet.”

Zuko’s eyes darted from Sokka to Katara and Aang. “You can’t tell them, Sokka.”

Honestly, Sokka was more surprised that they hadn’t figured it out themselves. “Why not?”

“Because it’s a secret identity for a reason,” Zuko hissed, going so far as to grip Sokka’s shoulder. “Sokka, I’m serious, you can’t tell them. Besides – it doesn’t matter anyway. I can’t be the Blue Spirit anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Zhao knows the Blue Spirit broke Aang out. It’s too dangerous to keep going – you’re right, it _is_ getting obvious that it’s me.”

“So if it’s so obvious, why can’t you tell them?” Sokka really couldn’t see the issue. “It’s just a name, it’s like _Lee_ , of course you can tell them –”

“ _No,_ Sokka, I can’t!”

Katara and Aang both turned round at that. Zuko glared at them, and that made Aang turn around pretty quickly, but Katara looked between them apprehensively.

“Are you guys sure you’re okay?”

“We’re fine, sis,” Sokka told her. “Just talking bending.”

“Really?” Katara’s face brightened. “Can I come join?”

“No,” he said hastily. “It’s, uh… a manly conversation.” Tui damn it, this not-quite-lying thing was harder than he’d thought. “It’s – manly bending. For men. Mending.” _Slush_ , mending stuff was women’s work. “It’s a private conversation, Katara!”

She looked offended, but that was Katara for you. She turned around with a huff, and Sokka breathed a sigh of relief.

He turned back to Zuko. “Why can’t you tell them?”

Zuko sighed, and looked down at the Earth Kingdom passing below them. When he spoke, his voice was quiet.

“I might be banished, but I’m – I’m _not_ a traitor, Sokka.”

That Zhao guy had called Zuko a traitor at the Fire Temple, Sokka remembered. He’d seemed like an altogether unpleasant guy, and Zuko had apparently got Aang out of Pohuai Stronghold from under his nose.

Sokka smirked. _Nice_.

“I can’t tell anyone I’m the Blue Spirit,” the other boy continued. “Uncle made me _promise_. And I’m – I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a traitor. I’ve got the Fire Nation’s best interests at heart, that’s – that’s _all_ I’ve ever wanted for the Nation. That’s why I’m here, Sokka. That’s why I’m on your side _._ The Blue Spirit, though… he’s not – he’s not betraying anyone. I’m doing the right thing, but – I’m not a traitor. I’m _loyal_.”

Sokka didn’t think that helping the Avatar was betraying anyone, but then again, the Fire Nation had always been a weird place to him. Zuko’s way of thinking seemed kind of weird to him, too; Sokka didn’t get how doing the right thing and being loyal to the Fire Nation were apparently two different things. He also didn’t understand how Zuko apparently needed two different identities in order to go between doing those two different things.

But if Zuko had to choose between doing the right thing and being loyal to the Fire Nation, Sokka didn’t think he wanted to know which one Zuko would decide on. And Sokka didn’t want to keep making him talk about this stuff and accidentally force him into making that choice.

“Well,” he said. “At least you’ve figured out whether the Blue Spirit’s a guy or not. I think Aang’s still undecided.”

Zuko scoffed. “Whatever Aang says about the Blue Spirit is a fucking _lie_.”

“Really?” Sokka got interested at that. Getting a first-hand account of a Blue Spirit adventure seemed like a pretty rare opportunity. Katara had been pretty tight-lipped about that whole mess with the pirates – _slush_ , that had been Zuko too? – and Aang had seemingly been too embarrassed about getting caught to share much about last night.

“You know how he said he made sure I got out safely?” Zuko said lowly, keeping one eye on Aang and Katara, who were still chatting happily away in the saddle.

“Uh-huh?”

“He didn’t get me out _safely_ ,” Zuko shook his head. “He airbent me over a wall, with absolutely _no_ fucking warning, and I landed in a tree and fell forty feet onto my face.”

“Sounds like Aang,” Sokka agreed. “He never thinks things through.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Zuko said. He had a weird expression on his face as he looked over at Aang. Sokka thought it almost looked _fond_ , but that was just ridiculous.

…

At least one good thing had come out of being captured and imprisoned and almost getting killed by the Fire Nation, Aang thought happily to himself.

Katara wanted to talk to him!

Aang was relieved that she really seemed back to her old self since he’d got her necklace back to her. She wasn’t being as angry or as annoyed as she had been since Gaipan, and she had even made a couple of jokes. They hadn’t been _that_ funny, but still!

Aang thought he knew now why Katara had been so upset in Gaipan – it had probably been because she’d been missing her necklace. The monks had always encouraged Aang to give up material possessions, because people could get too attached to them, and he was really seeing both sides of it now. On the one hand, Katara had been _really_ upset when she’d lost it, and she’d been really down ever since. Things had gotten especially bad in Gaipan, when she’d yelled at Jet, and then in the Great Divide, when she’d been angry at Sokka. But now that she had it back, Aang could see how much her mother’s necklace meant to her.

But on the other hand, with the way Katara was smiling and teasing Sokka and Zuko, Aang thought it was a really good thing that she was so happy again. Sokka clearly thought so, too – he was in such a good mood that he was laughing at her jokes! Even Zuko seemed to be in a better mood because Katara was happy, because whenever Sokka talked about how the Blue Spirit had gotten her necklace back for her, he got this little smile on his face.

That was who Katara was, Aang thought to himself. She was someone who made other people happy around her.

“That’s three times now we’ve run into the Blue Spirit,” she was saying. “I wonder if we’ll catch him again.”

“Who knows?” Sokka said. “What do you think, Zuko?”

Zuko scowled at Sokka, but that was pretty much their entire relationship. “I don’t know, Sokka. And if I knew anything about the Blue Spirit, I wouldn’t tell anyone, either.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Sokka conceded. “Still, maybe they’ll show up. And then you’ll be able to give them that kiss you owe them, huh, Katara?”

At the mention of that kiss, Aang had to turn back to concentrate on feeding Appa, because he could feel his face going bright red. He hoped Katara didn’t notice.

Momo landed next to him and chirruped curiously.

“Shut up, Momo!” Aang shushed him. “I don’t _care_ if my face is the color of lychee nuts!”

“Then again, you already put that one kiss on Aang,” Sokka was still talking. “So I guess you could just put another one on him, right? You’d be cool with that, huh, Aang, buddy?”

Oh, man – if Sokka didn’t shut up, Aang was going to go and steal his fishing line! That would teach him to get so attached to earthly possessions!

“Stop teasing him, Sokka,” Katara said, coming to his rescue. “Aang's just a good friend.” She patted him on the cheek and gave him a smile. “A sweet little guy, just like Momo.”

_Monkeyfeathers!_

“Thanks,” Aang grumbled.

Momo looked like he was about to say something sympathetic, but suddenly a big roaring noise came from the forest and scared him off! Aang ran after him to see what was going on. There was a huge platypus bear with dark brown fur and a big white V-stripe of fur across its chest, and it was attacking a man! The bear hadn’t hurt him yet, but it looked like it was only a matter of time!

“Someone's being attacked by a platypus bear!” Aang cried out to the others.

“Why, hello there,” the man greeted Aang. “Nice day, isn’t it?”

“Make noise!” Aang told him. “He'll run off!”

“No, play dead!” Sokka cried out as he arrived. “He'll lose interest!”

The man didn’t make noise _or_ play dead, Aang noted with dismay. He just dodged the platypus bear whenever she tried to hurt him.

Katara ran over and offered her own advice. “Run downhill, then climb a tree!”

Suddenly, Zuko jumped in front of the platypus bear holding Sokka’s fishing rod!

“Back off!” He shouted, waving the fishing rod back and forth. It was making a really weird _swishing_ noise as it went through the air. “Get back!”

“Zuko, watch out!” Katara cried, but the platypus bear looked like it was going to attack!

Suddenly, Appa appeared behind the bear and shouted at her. He was really annoyed at how she was disturbing his peace and quiet – she’d interrupted his mealtime! The platypus bear got so scared she laid an egg and ran away.

“Lunch!” Sokka said happily, picking up the egg. He paused, and snatched the fishing rod back from Zuko. “ _Give_ me that.”

“Sorry,” Zuko apologized. “I just grabbed it.”

“Well, don’t just grab my rod. Ask nicely, next time.”

“ _Next time?_ ”

Sokka looked a bit offended at that. “What, you _don’t_ want my rod?”

“No, it’s a nice rod,” Zuko tried to say. “One of the best I’ve seen.”

Sokka puffed his chest out. “I got it from my Dad. He said the men in our family always have the best rods in the Southern Tribe.”

“Lucky for you,” Zuko said. Aang wasn’t quite sure why he was rolling his eyes.

Whatever the reason, Sokka just nodded and turned back to the man who’d almost been eaten by a platypus bear. “Lucky for you, we came along.”

“Thanks,” the man replied, “But everything was already under control. Not to worry; Aunt Wu predicted I'd have a safe journey.”

Aang thought he might have misheard what the man said. “Aunt who?”

“No,” the man chuckled. “Aunt Wu. She's the fortuneteller from my village. Awful nice, knowing your future.”

Katara got super excited about the idea of knowing her future, and Aang thought it would be a nice thing for them to do together. Neither Sokka or Zuko seemed too enthusiastic about it, but that was okay, too – in fact, it would mean Aang and Katara could go together, on their own!

Aang thought happily that the way Sokka and Zuko had planned this trip to Makapu, maybe _they_ were the ones who were helping Aang sort his future out!

…

“Look, Katara, we shouldn’t be going to some fortuneteller to be hearing about our future.” Sokka sighed with frustration. “We should be planning out our next steps on the journey and figuring out what we’re going to do about it _ourselves_.”

Katara shook her head and kept walking. “It’s kind of weird how you’re the only one saying that, and yet you’re the only one who got soaking wet because you didn’t think it was going to rain, even though Aunt Wu predicted it would.”

Aang giggled. “Good one, Katara.”

“Actually, Sokka’s right,” Zuko said. “If Aang was in Pohuai Stronghold, things could get… complicated. Zhao will be after him.”

That made Aang look a little guilty. “Guys, I told you I was sorry.”

“It’s fine, Aang,” Katara reassured him. “Besides, guys, we managed to get away from him before. If we keep one step ahead of him, we should be able to get to the Northern Tribe before he catches up to us.”

“Actually, that’s part of the plan,” Zuko coughed. “See, my Uncle Iroh has this proverb.”

“Oh, boy,” Sokka muttered.

“Fuck off, Sokka.”

Katara gave Zuko a light smack on his shoulder for his language, and Aang chuckled at the look on his face. Sokka looked smug, and Katara debated giving him a slap too.

“What’s your uncle’s proverb, Hotman?” Aang asked.

“Don’t call me that, or I won’t tell you.”

“You’re acting like that’s such a bad thing,” Sokka commented.

Katara could see the warning signs as Zuko rolled his eyes and opened his mouth, and she reached up to let her hand hover over his shoulder again.

“There’s more where that one came from,” she warned him with a smirk.

He closed his mouth with a grudging sigh, and she gave him a more genuine grin this time.

“At least it’s not a frying pan,” she reminded him, and he scowled.

“Zuko, can we hear your uncle’s proverb now?” Aang asked.

“Ugh – _fine_ , alright. Um…” Zuko cleared his throat. “Chase two possum-chickens, catch. Chase one possum-chicken, hunger.”

There was a brief lull in the conversation on the walk up to Makapu Village as Sokka, Aang and Katara tried to puzzle out what on earth Zuko’s Uncle had meant.

“Are you sure that’s what your Uncle said?” Aang asked. “Because, like, I’m an airbender, so I could probably go fast enough to catch two possum-chickens. But it would probably be easier to just catch one.”

“Yeah, buddy, I think you messed that one up,” Sokka said with a nod.

“Is it a Fire Nation proverb?” Katara asked. She wasn’t keen on the idea, but at least it might help her understand it if there was some cultural context she was missing. “Is that why it sounds strange?”

Sokka scoffed. “Either that, or Zuko’s uncle’s straight _kooky_.”

Zuko scowled, and folded his arms even though they were still walking. “Fuck off, Sokka.”

His folded arms seemed to make his shoulders look even broader, so Katara had more of a target to aim at as she landed another smack.

“Agni’s _sake_ ,” Zuko groused as he rubbed the spot. “Alright, alright, _fine_. Chase one possum-chicken, you might catch dinner; chase two, you’ll go hungry. What does it even _matter?_ ”

“You’re kind of the one who brought it up, Hotman,” Aang reminded him.

Sokka nodded. “Yeah, and it’s kind of the central point of this plan. Guys, Zhao’s been chasing us, and so far, he’s come close. He might actually catch us. But if we split up, he’ll go hungry. Zuko and I can go off and distract him, and you two can go on ahead to the North Pole.”

Sokka was grinning like this was some kind of great idea. Zuko wasn’t smiling, but he wasn’t frowning either. He was looking at Katara and Aang like he was waiting for them to approve of the idea.

Well, Katara was going to be making him wait a long, _long_ time.

“We are _not_ splitting up, Sokka!” She declared furiously. How could he even _think_ that was a good idea?

When that spirit had taken Sokka, and Aang had gone after him – she hadn’t been able to do _anything_. She’d had to sit there all night with Zuko, watching the forest and hoping against hope that they would come back to her. When Aang had run off in the fishing village, she hadn’t known what was happening to him, and then to hear that Sokka was in danger on the seas…

“We can catch up once we’ve gotten Zhao off Aang’s tracks,” Sokka tried to explain. “Now you’ve got your necklace back, Zhao won’t have any way to track you, but if Zuko and I can give him a way to track _us_ –”

“I don’t know, guys,” Aang looked from Zuko and Sokka to Katara nervously. “Do you think we really need to split up like that? I mean, I know Appa’s pretty tired, so it might be good if he’s carrying less, but that could just mean we carry less food, right?”

“Zhao knows Sokka and I are travelling with you, Aang,” Zuko pointed out. “If we show up somewhere, he’ll think that’s where you are. We can buy you time to reach the North Pole.”

Katara didn’t like to argue like this in front of Aang, but there was _no_ way she was going to stand for this. “We’re not splitting up, Zuko!” She turned around to face him as they entered Makapu Village, and stood there in the middle of the town square. “We’re going to make this _work_ – I don’t care what Zhao does!”

“Katara,” Sokka stepped forward and put his hand on her arm. “Katara, sis, I don’t like it either. But you remember when Dad left?”

“You’re not _Dad_ , Sokka!” She cried out, wrenching her arm away.

Of _course_ this was what it came down to, she thought. For Sokka, seeing Dad sail off to the Southern Sea around the Earth Kingdom was an amazing moment. That was his Dad, going to fight against the Fire Nation, being brave, being manly. But for Katara, seeing Dad sail off without even knowing if he’d come back had only been _awful_.

The Fire Nation had already taken her mother away from her. She had been sick at the thought of them taking her father away from her, too.

But Sokka persisted. “Dad said he had to go to protect the Tribe. To protect the people he cared about. Katara, if we have to do that…”

But Katara had promised to use her bending to protect the people she cared about. She was _not_ going to let the Fire Nation take her brother, too.

“We’re not splitting up,” she repeated. “We’re going together.”


	33. Chapter 33

When Katara had said _We’re not splitting up, we’re going together_ , Aang had thought she’d meant to the North Pole. But, actually, it turned out that she was apparently setting that out as, like, a mission statement for everything now. She’d practically dragged Sokka and Zuko into Aunt Wu’s fortunetelling house with them.

Aang was a little disappointed with how it wasn’t just the two of them, but he figured that even if it _had_ been just him and Katara, it wouldn’t have been just the two of them, because that annoying girl Meng kept interrupting them. Even if Sokka wanted all the bean curd puffs in the world, Aang sort of wished that Meng would just leave them alone. She kept talking to Aang when he was trying to talk to Katara!

And she told him he had big ears!

Apparently, the man Aunt Wu had told Meng she was going to marry was supposed to have big ears. A horrible thought struck Aang. If Katara saw him as a sweet little guy, was he going to forever be a small Avatar? Was he doomed to have a child-sized body whilst his ears grew out to big, adult-sized proportions?

_Monkeyfeathers!_

He couldn’t have that, Aang thought to himself. He needed a way to get out of that. But how? Aunt Wu only predicted the future, she couldn’t _change_ it.

But when Aang had gotten annoyed that Zuko’s Uncle had been able to go to the Spirit World when he hadn’t, Zuko had said he’d probably get to go there soon enough. And then when they’d been in Senlin and then the Fire Nation, he’d gone to the Spirit World twice!

“Zuko!” He turned to face the older boy. “Am I going to grow up to be a normal-sized person?”

Zuko paused with a bean curd puff sticking halfway out of his mouth before swallowing. “Um, I guess? Just keep eating your fruit and vegetables, you’ll be fine.”

Aang breathed a sigh of relief. That had been a close one.

He turned to the door as an old woman in yellow robes came in. This must be Aunt Wu, he decided.

“Welcome, young travelers,” the fortuneteller said nicely. “Now, who's next? Don't be shy.”

Sokka didn’t seem all that interested, and Zuko said he was okay for the moment, thanks very much. Aang looked at Katara; she was the one who had wanted to come here, after all.

At least she looked happy to be here. “I guess that’s me!” She said, getting to her feet and following Aunt Wu through the door.

Aang had never been to a fortuneteller before, he realized. He didn’t actually know what to expect.

“What do you think they're talking about back there?” He asked curiously.

Zuko shrugged and said he’d never been to an Earth Kingdom fortuneteller, but they were probably different to the ones they had in the Fire Nation. Sokka was a lot more helpful, though.

“Boring stuff, I’m sure,” he told Aang whilst chewing on a bean curd puff. “Love, who she's going to marry, how many babies she's going to have.”

“Oh,” Aang tried to act casual as he started thinking. “Yeah, dumb stuff like that.” He popped up to his feet. “Well, I’ve got to find a bathroom!”

As he left the room, Aang could hear Sokka ask Zuko what Fire Nation fortunetellers were like, but he had more interesting fortunetelling stuff to hear about now. He had to sneak down the hallway, but when he found the door at the end of the corridor, he could put his ear to the lock and listen, and he could hear what Katara and Aunt Wu were talking about!

At first, they were just talking about Katara’s skin routine, which was pretty _whatever_ , to be honest. Aang thought Katara was really pretty, of _course_ , but he didn’t care about her stupid seaweed lotion, no matter how special Katara claimed it was! But when she asked if Aunt Wu could see anything interesting in her love line, that was a lot more interesting.

“I feel a great romance for you,” Aunt Wu said in a mysterious voice. “The man you are going to marry…”

From the sound of her voice, Katara was as excited as Aang was to find out more. “Tell me more!”

“I can see that he's a very powerful bender,” Aunt Wu told her.

_Yes!_

Aang had to resist the urge to start doing the camelephant strut in the hallway as he went back to where Sokka and Zuko were talking. They went silent as he came in, which Aang was pretty okay with. He had some big news to share!

“Looks like someone had a pretty good bathroom break,” Sokka observed before he could get the chance.

Oh, yeah… he’d said he was going to the bathroom. So he’d technically lied, but he was pretty sure Sokka and Zuko wouldn’t mind when he told them what he’d heard Katara and Aunt Wu talking about!

“Yeah!” He nodded excitedly, bursting to tell them the news. “When I was in there –”

Sokka squawked and held his hand up. “I don’t even want to know!”

“Yeah, Aang,” Zuko agreed, looking at him with a frown. “Some things are super private, and they’re not anyone else’s business.”

“And _anyone else_ would quite like to keep it that way!” Sokka agreed, still looking a bit grossed out.

Aang had to dodge out of the way of Aunt Wu as she came back into the room with Katara. Katara was looking really happy about her fortune, which Aang could totally get. He was really happy about it, too!

“Who’s next?” Aunt Wu asked pleasantly.

“Okay,” Sokka grunted, getting to his feet. “Let’s get this over with.”

Aunt Wu told Sokka that his future was full of struggle and anguish, most of it self-inflicted. Sokka got a bit stroppy at this and pointed out that she hadn’t even read his palm, but Aunt Wu said she didn’t need to when it was written all over his face. Then she pointed at Aang and told him to go with her.

Aunt Wu’s fortunetelling chamber was quite dark, and there was a small fire that made Aang feel nice and cozy. There was also a jug of bones, which Aang thought was pretty weird. He didn’t even know if they were animal bones or human bones!

Aunt Wu had said that using the bones was the most reliable method of telling your fortune, and she talked about how _the bones never lie_. But then she went on to tell Aang that she hadn’t seen anything in his future about a girl or love or anything like that.

_Monkeyfeathers!_

Fortunetelling was complete rubbish! Aunt Wu didn’t know what she was talking about. Aang had been just about to rush out of there and get Zuko to tell him that he was going to be with the one he loved when Aunt Wu announced that she’d forgotten something.

She held up a piece of bone and showed it to Aang. “Right here, it says ‘trust your heart and you will be with the one you love’.”

Aang breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t need Zuko to tell him that he was going to be with Katara after all! He just needed to trust his heart, and he’d be okay.

…

When Aang left to go to the bathroom, Sokka couldn’t hold his disbelief in any longer.

“You know that all this fortunetelling stuff isn’t true, whether it’s Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom?” He checked with Zuko.

He didn’t care how many light showers there were, or how many eggs he got on his face, or how much struggle and anguish Aunt Wu _allegedly_ saw in his future, fortunetelling was completely _bogus_ and Sokka would prove it!

Zuko huffed a low laugh. “I don’t know about fortunetelling. Back in the Fire Nation, we have these fortunes people write out and put in the temple shrines. If you pay, you get one of the _o-mikuji_ and whatever’s written on it.”

“Do they get anything good?” Sokka asked.

Zuko shrugged. “Mainly it’s just generic. ‘A good friend will come into your life’, or, uh, ‘A fresh start will put you on your way’. Stuff like that.”

“Well, those could apply to literally anyone,” Sokka pointed out. “How’re you going to base your whole life on that?” He scoffed and folded his arms. “Fortunetelling’s total bullshit, man.”

“I mean, yeah, it’s not – you know, _specific_.” Zuko shifted to pour himself some more tea. “But you shouldn’t be relying on another person to tell you what your destiny is. It’s something you figure out for yourself.”

Sokka had thought he had found an ally in his anti-fortunetelling crusade, but apparently Zuko was just letting him down. “You don’t _seriously_ believe all this fortunetelling stuff, do you?”

“Not fortunetelling,” Zuko replied. “But – destiny, yeah. I know my destiny.”

Sokka sighed. “Let me guess – your destiny’s to, like, settle down with some other weirdo who dresses up as a spirit and messes with the Fire Nation?”

“Well, I don’t know about _that_ ,” Zuko allowed a rare smile. “But – it took me a while to figure out. But I know my destiny’s to do the right thing. To do what has to be done, when no one else will do it.”

“That’s not a destiny,” Sokka protested. “That’s not – that doesn’t tell me _anything_. It doesn’t say where you’ll end up, it doesn’t say who you’re going to do it with, or what you’re going to need to do. It doesn’t even tell you what the right thing _is_.”

“I know,” Zuko agreed. “But that’s the point, Sokka. It’s not about where I do it, or who I do it with. It’s about me. I used to think my destiny depended on – someone else. But that’s not _me_.”

“Why are we even _in_ here, then?” Sokka ran his hand through his hair. “Why am I stuck in this _stupid_ house of stupidity, if you didn’t even need to come in here?”

Zuko almost choked on his tea as he spluttered out a laugh. Sokka watched askance as he collected himself.

“Well, partly because Katara wanted to come,” he said once he’d recovered. “But also because it’s really funny to piss you off.”

“Don’t even _start_ ,” Sokka muttered. “Do you even _know_ how pissed off I was with you when I figured out you were the Blue Spirit?”

“What?” Zuko’s eyes widened. “I thought – I thought you were cool with it.”

“Well, yeah,” Sokka had to concede. “I _was_. But I was also kind of, you know – the Blue Spirit was awesome. And then they turned out to be just some grumpy dickhead.”

Zuko rolled his eyes. “Reality is often disappointing,” he answered flatly.

After that awful fever dream he’d had in Taku, Sokka was never going to complain about reality again. “So, about that whole thing where you dress up as a spirit and fight against the Fire Nation.”

Zuko looked a bit tense, but _whatever_ ¸ Sokka wasn’t going to talk about that whole thing again. Give him a _little_ credit.

“Why’d you pick the name?” Sokka asked. “Like, why didn’t you call yourself something cool?”

“The Blue Spirit sounds kind of cool,” Zuko defended himself.

“Yeah, but – it could be _cooler_. Why’d you dress up in a blue mask if you could be, I don’t know, something super badass?”

“Oh.” Was Zuko _blushing?_ “It’s, um – it’s actually from a Fire Nation play. I needed a disguise, and I had this mask from the play. But I guess people in the Earth Kingdom haven’t really heard of _Love Amongst the Dragons_ , so they couldn’t tell it was the Dark Water Spirit. But the name stuck.”

_The Dark Water Spirit?_

Sokka was pretty sure he’d heard that before. He tried to remember.

_Oh, slush!_

“That’s what Bumi was talking about!” He cried, pointing a finger at Zuko. “He said that the Dark Water Spirit is a friend to the Avatar!”

Zuko scowled. “Don’t talk to me about fucking _Bumi_.”

“ _That’s_ what he told Aang?” Sokka asked in disbelief. “Of all the things he could have told us when you joined up, _that’s_ what he thought we should know?”

“Right?” Zuko nodded emphatically. “He didn’t even get the name right!”

“He told us you were a secret vigilante, and he didn’t even get your _name_ right – and he just _forgot_ to mention you were a firebender?”

“I thought he’d _told_ you,” Zuko grumbled. “I thought you _knew_ , so I figured it’d be fine if I bent – and then Katara whacked me in the face with a frying pan!”

“I was right,” Sokka said faintly. “I was right all along. Bumi’s actually insane.”

Zuko nodded grumpily and set his cup back down. “Sometimes I wonder if all old people are just generally _weird_.”

“Well, your Uncle’s guy in Gaipan seemed kind of cool,” Sokka offered. “But Bumi – no, that dude’s just straight-up kooky.”

“Uncle says he knows some old guy at the North Pole,” Zuko said. “If they turn out to be kooky, I’m just going to leave. If Appa’s staying, I’m swimming back to the Earth Kingdom.”

“I might join you.”

“Don’t. I’m trying to get _away_ from kooky bastards.”

“Oh, fuck _off_ ,” Sokka said, just as the door opened. Oh, come _on_ – if that was Katara and he was going to get another telling off, he was just going to _leave_ and go find Zhao himself. He’d had enough of this bullshit.

Instead, it was Aang, back from his bathroom trip – which Sokka did _not_ need to know about. Thankfully, Katara and the fraud returned before he could go into any details, and then Aang had gone out for his own fortunetelling.

“How’d it go?” Sokka asked, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.

Katara blushed. _Ugh_ , so they’d been talking about love and other boring stuff.

“Never mind,” he added. “I don’t want to know.”

“Are you sure?” Katara asked. “Because Aunt Wu actually told me about the man I’m going to marry!”

Sokka groaned. This might have been self-inflicted struggle and anguish, but that did _not_ mean that Aunt Wu was right.

…

Sokka had kept complaining about Aunt Wu, but Katara was too happy to keep listening to him. She was going to have _a great romance_ in her future!

Katara had always wanted to be able to love her husband like her parents had loved each other, but she’d never really thought about whether he would be a bender or not. But now that she tried to imagine it, she liked the picture in her mind. They could practice their bending together, laughing and teasing each other when Katara hit him with her water whips. And if she was marrying a powerful bender, that would mean that _she_ would be a powerful bender too, right?

Katara couldn’t pretend that she’d also been relieved to hear Aunt Wu’s prediction for another reason, too. Jet had been a non-bender, and he’d seen her waterbending like it was just something she could _do_ for him, rather than a _part_ of who she was. She thought that if her husband was a bender, he’d be able to understand that about her.

Jet hadn’t understood her at all, she had come to accept. He had been too wrapped up in hating the Fire Nation to truly care about her. She’d just been someone he could hate the Fire Nation with, someone who he could spend a night with to feel good before going back to his _lies_. But now Katara had resolved that she was going to marry a man who understood and cared about _her_ , not just about one part of her or how she could make them feel.

She wanted to hear more about this man, Katara decided, as she saw Aunt Wu walking away from the crowd. She could hear Aang saying something behind her about _more than normal_ , but it was probably something to do with how annoying Sokka was being.

Katara followed Aunt Wu back to her building and knocked on the door. As Aunt Wu opened the door, she suddenly realized that Aunt Wu had just done a big public speech and a prediction, and she might have been tired.

“Hi, Aunt Wu,” she started. “Sorry to bother you.”

“Any time,” Aunt Wu smiled. Katara breathed a sigh of relief – she wasn’t interrupting her.

But she thought she’d better hurry, in case Aunt Wu wanted to go for a nap or something. “About this man I'm supposed to marry…”

Katara blushed as she remembered the sensation of running her hands through shaggy dark hair. “Is he going to be handsome?” She remembered the way her mother had always laughed when her father had lifted her up. “Oh, I hope he's tall!”

Aunt Wu looked a little confused. “Ah… You want another reading?”

If Aunt Wu was offering, that would be great! Katara beamed. “Yes, please!”

It was really nice of Aunt Wu to offer to do this for her, Katara thought happily. She’d thought that the fortuneteller might have wanted some peace and quiet during her down-time, but she patiently sat with Katara and talked her through the process of discerning the lines of fate in her hand.

Katara knew she often got a bit snappy with the boys when she was tired, and she couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed at how she’d kept being so rude to her brother after Gaipan. And she’d been a bit short with Aang in the Great Divide, when he’d only been trying to help. Aunt Wu wasn’t just teaching her about fate and destiny – she was telling her about how to be patient and gracious when she’d had a long day.

“And then you will have your third great-grandchild before quietly passing away in your sleep,” Aunt Wu predicted, giving Katara a smile. “Is that enough information for you?”

Katara couldn’t help but notice that she looked a little tired, and realized that she would probably want to go now. She couldn’t help but examine her hand with renewed interest.

“Wow, thanks, Aunt Wu,” she said gratefully as she got to her feet and prepared to leave, but another thought struck her. “Oh wait – one more thing. How warmly should I dress tomorrow?”

“You want me to do a reading for that?”

Katara nodded, but it looked like Aunt Wu was getting a bit tired. She shook her head and mumbled for Katara to come back inside.

“Whilst you’re here, I may as well give you this,” she said, handing Katara a small pouch. It felt quite light as Katara hefted it curiously.

“Give that to your friend,” Aunt Wu instructed her. “The tall one.”

Katara was about to ask if she meant Zuko, but she remembered that Sokka had told her he might not have wanted his real name to be shared in Earth Kingdom villages that didn’t like the Fire Nation. “Do you mean Lee?”

“The one who isn’t your brother or the young monk,” Aunt Wu agreed. Yeah, that was definitely Zuko.

“Alright,” Katara promised. “I’ll make sure he gets it. So – do you know what the weather’s going to be like tomorrow?”

Aunt Wu told her that the weather tomorrow would be different than it was today, which Katara was pretty happy about; she’d really needed that umbrella earlier. She thanked her and made her way towards the door. She’d kind of wanted to ask Aunt Wu about _when_ she’d meet the man who was going to be her husband, but she thought she’d let Aunt Wu rest.

“Thank you so much for your time,” she said sincerely, bobbing up and down in a little curtsey as she left. “I really appreciate it.”

“It’s quite alright, child,” Aunt Wu said with a smile. “Just make sure you remember to hand those things onto your friend, yes?”

“I will.” It was the least Katara could do after all the time Aunt Wu had given her. “I hope you have a lovely rest of your day. But, um – should I eat a mango or a papaya for breakfast tomorrow?”

Aunt Wu’s smile vanished, and she let out a deep breath. “Papaya.”

Katara was about to complain about how she _hated_ papaya, but Aunt Wu had already closed the door.

“I _hate_ papaya,” she muttered anyway. Aang saw her and said hi, but Katara was in a bit too much of a funk to talk to him. She felt kind of guilty about it – so soon after Aunt Wu had been so nice to her, she was being a bit of a jerk to Aang when she’d promised herself she’d be more patient with him – but she’d just been told she had to eat _papaya_ for breakfast.

She went over to a fruit stand in the courtyard, thinking that maybe if she tried the papaya now, she might be okay with it in time for breakfast tomorrow. But when she bit into it, she almost spat it right out again.

_Ugh!_

If she had to eat this for breakfast tomorrow, Katara was going to be _sick!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [_O-mikuji_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-mikuji) are random fortunes written and left at religious shrines in Japan.


	34. Chapter 34

Aang had thought that Aunt Wu would know all about how to predict the future, but it had turned out that she really wasn’t all that helpful in how to make that future actually _happen_.

Katara just didn’t seem to be hearing everything he was trying to say! She hadn’t even seemed to care when he pointed out that the cloud up in the sky looked like a flower, and when he’d complained to Sokka about it, Sokka had just said it was a good thing the clouds were still in the sky. Then he seemed to get kind of worried and told Aang very seriously that if Aang ever got mad about the clouds, he’d tell Sokka and they could talk it out.

Aang had asked whether they could talk about some other stuff, and Sokka had said that was okay too. So Aang had asked him about girls, and Sokka had told him that he’d known who Aang was talking about straight away.

_Monkeyfeathers!_

Oh, man, if Sokka knew that Aang liked his sister, it was going to get _awkward_. Aang had started to say that if Sokka ever got mad about how Aang fancied this girl, he could tell Aang and they could talk it out, but Sokka had told him that he’d been picking up the vibe that she liked him back, too!

Aang had broken out into an impromptu camelephant strut in the middle of the courtyard. Sokka had seemed a little confused by this, but then he’d shaken his head and told Aang that she was _crazy_ about him, and all he needed to do was not mess it up. Apparently, guys _really_ messed up when they were too nice.

“If you want to keep her interested, you have to act aloof,” Sokka had explained. “Like you don't really care one way or the other.”

Aang had been really grateful for Sokka’s good advice, up until the part where it hadn’t _worked_.

“So,” he’d started, playing with a piece of papaya and tossing it up and down like Sokka always did with his lychee nuts. “Papaya.”

“Uh-huh,” Katara had agreed. “Would you like some?”

Aang had decided to put the papaya down and picked up an apple. It was a bit more solid than the papaya, so it was more fun to play with. “You know me. I don't really care what I eat.”

“Okay then,” Katara had started eating her papaya and pulled a face before she’d started walking off. “See you later.”

Katara hadn’t realized that she really liked him too and wanted to marry him when he’d told her he didn’t care what he ate; she’d just sighed and said something about papaya. But that was okay, Aang decided. Just as long as Katara realized that she liked him, he could hang around for a bit longer. He was definitely a powerful bender – he was the Avatar! _And_ , what’s more, he was the Avatar who didn’t care about papaya.

Aang thought being remembered as the papaya-less Avatar was _way_ cooler than being remembered as the freakishly small Avatar with huge ears, but apparently he needed to be even more aloof, because Katara didn’t seem to hear him.

Aang had been wondering whether he should write out the words _Katara is going to realize that she really likes Aang too,_ and try and get Zuko to say them out loud so they’d come true, but then he’d found out about how panda lilies worked.

Aang understood what he needed to do now! If Aang got panda lilies, then Katara would figure out she liked Aang! He wasted no time in pulling Sokka up the volcano with him to go and pick some of the flowers, but Sokka complained the whole way up.

Aang wasn’t sure what Sokka was complaining about, really. Aunt Wu had said in her speech to the townspeople that the volcano wouldn’t erupt, and Aunt Wu hadn’t been wrong about much stuff so far. And when Katara realized that Aunt Wu hadn’t been wrong about her marrying a powerful bender, she’d like him back! Aang smiled at the thought.

Sokka had said he was really supportive of Aang liking Katara, but from the way he was moaning about how Aang was dragging him all over the place for some stupid flower, Aang was wondering whether he really understood what Aang was trying to accomplish here.

“Not just any flower,” Aang explained. “A panda lily. I've seen it in action and boy, does it work!”

“Flowers are fine once you're married,” Sokka replied sagely. “But at this early stage, it's critical that you maintain maximum aloofness.”

Aang thought about it for a moment. When they’d gone to Kyoshi Island, Sokka had been kind of aloof, always talking about how girls couldn’t fight, and then Suki had gotten mad at him and beaten him up. But then she’d given him a kiss on the cheek when they’d left the island and flown on to Omashu. So maybe Sokka was right, but Aang knew that Sokka’s aloofness hadn’t lasted very long.

“But my heart is telling me to get this flower,” he protested. “And Aunt Wu said if I trusted in my heart, I will be with the one I love.”

“What?” Sokka asked, giving Aang a disbelieving look as he took a break from climbing the mountain. “Don't tell me you believe in that stuff, too.”

“Well, Aunt Wu hasn't been wrong yet,” Aang pointed out, quite pleased that he’d spotted this excellent argumentative logic. “Why should she be wrong about love?”

Sokka didn’t seem to have an answer to that, but Aang couldn’t wait for an answer anyway, because he’d seen a panda lily at the top of the volcano!

“There!” He pointed. “On the rim!”

Sokka grumbled a bit more about all the climbing he was having to do, but Aang couldn’t hang about all day for Sokka to catch up to him. He sprinted on ahead, but he quickly had to stop running before he ran headfirst into the volcano. That would have been embarrassing.

And deadly!

The volcano was full of lava, and it was about to erupt!

“Oh, no,” Aang realized. “Aunt Wu was wrong.”

…

Zuko had thought he might be able to find a member of the Order of the White Lotus here in Makapu, but whenever he tried to talk to someone playing Pai Sho, they were either pretty rude to him when he asked if he could play, or they took the first move and put the boat tile or something down on the board before he could open with the White Lotus Gambit.

It had been a pretty long shot, he acknowledged. Makapu Village wasn’t a big place, and there wasn’t much call for the White Lotus in the northern Earth Kingdom. But after Pohuai, Zuko would have been pretty happy to have someone who could give him some reassurances.

It hadn’t just been the fact that Aang had managed to get himself captured, although that _had_ been a pretty nightmarish thing for Zuko to find out. It had been the fact that Zuko had screwed up. If he’d just told Aang what he’d planned to do, he could have made him stay put in Taku. But, then, Aang would have wanted to know about the Blue Spirit, and Zuko was pretty sure one thing would have led to another, and Uncle had made it _very_ clear that Zuko wasn’t meant to tell the Avatar _anything_ about the White Lotus until the right moment.

Zuko could just imagine how that conversation would have gone.

 _Hey, Aang, I need you to stay put whilst I go and sneak around a Fire Nation stronghold as the Blue Spirit. Why am I the Blue Spirit? Well, I needed a way to do the right thing without compromising my own integrity as a loyal subject of the Fire Nation, but also without it being traced back to me or Uncle and the secret organization we both belong to. You didn’t know? Oh, yeah, it’s dedicated to keeping the balance and serving the Avatar. I didn’t tell you because Uncle made me promise; sorry about that. Yeah, Bumi’s also a member. No, I don’t think that old guy in Haru’s village was a member. Yeah, I thought he was kind of a dick, too_.

No, Zuko decided. Telling Aang about the White Lotus would just bring up more problems than it was worth. But he would still have appreciated someone in Makapu who could give him some advice. Once he’d told Sokka about how Zhao was looking for a bounty hunter to track them down, Sokka had been alarmed at the idea. Since Zuko had joined them, they’d left a whole trail behind them from Beihe to Gaipan to Makapu, and the idea that Zhao had gotten his hands on Katara’s necklace and could have been able to track them had been a worrying one for both of them.

But they’d agreed that if Zhao _did_ try to catch up to them, it would be better if he went after Sokka and Zuko. Then Aang and Katara, as the two younger members of their group, who needed to get to the Northern Water Tribe to learn waterbending, would be free to go on ahead. The _Wani_ was still in the seas around the northern Earth kingdom, so Zuko could get Uncle to pick them up and get them to the North Pole. Then Uncle and Master Pakku could plan out the Order’s next move, Zuko and Sokka could reunite with Aang and Katara, and they could move on to trying to find Aang an earthbending teacher.

But Katara had been so adamant about _not_ being separated that Zuko couldn’t see that plan working. He could understand where she was coming from – when he was banished, Uncle Iroh had been the only family he had been able to see. He had spent time apart from Uncle a few times, mainly with Jeong Jeong, Piandao and Bumi, but if Zuko had been _made_ to leave Uncle… he didn’t even want to think about it. For Katara to _have_ to leave Sokka without knowing when she’d see him again – Zuko had left behind his sister in the Fire Nation when he had been banished. Azula would be fourteen now. He’d heard rumors on board the _Wani_ that she could bend lightning.

She had always been a prodigy, he thought to himself.

He could see Katara approaching, and sat up so she wouldn’t be able to scoff at him for daydreaming. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she returned the greeting with a smile. “Aunt Wu wanted me to give you something.”

“What?” Zuko had purposely tried _not_ to get Aunt Wu’s attention. But Katara handed him a small pouch, and he opened it curiously.

A White Lotus tile, a few packets of ginseng – he rolled his eyes at Uncle’s persistence – and a couple of cookies.

“I think this is one of those things Earth Kingdom fortunetellers do,” he said, eyeing one of the cookies dubiously. “They’ve usually got a message inside.”

“Well, break it open,” Katara encouraged him. She leaned in a little to try and get a closer look as he extricated the slip of paper. “What’s it say?”

“Nothing useful,” Zuko mumbled, clearing his throat. “‘Soon, life will become more interesting.’”

Katara frowned and took the paper to have a look for herself. “What does _that_ mean?”

Zuko honestly wasn’t sure how his life was supposed to become even more interesting than it was already was. “I don’t know,” he hedged, tucking the note back into the bag. “But I guess, if it’s meant to be, we’ll find out.” He offered Katara another of the cookies. “Do you want it?”

She shook her head. “I already ate,” she explained, but she didn’t look too happy about it.

“Well, if you want, you could have it with dinner,” he shrugged, holding it out again. “Or breakfast, whatever.”

She considered it for a moment. “Maybe I’ll have it for breakfast,” she allowed, taking it from him and giving him a quick smile in return. “Thanks, Zuko.”

He’d been about to say that it was a bit unfair that he was giving her cookies and she was giving him concussions by hitting him round the head with a frying pan, when Sokka and Aang rushed up to them. It was probably for the best, to be honest.

“Hi, Katara!” Aang waved. “How do you feel about panda lilies?”

“Panda lilies?” Katara repeated. “Um, I don’t think I’ve ever heard about them before.”

_Panda lilies?_

Uncle had told Zuko about panda lilies, but he couldn’t remember what he’d said. Something about how they weren’t an effective Pai Sho tile, because… though the white lotus turned the harmonies upside-down, panda lilies showed that your whole world had been turned upside-down?

“We have other things to worry about!” Sokka shouted, and all discussion of panda lilies was halted. “Aunt Wu was wrong about the volcano!”

Katara rolled her eyes – they’d clearly not given up on this argument. “Sokka, you tried to convince me she was wrong before. It's going to take an awful lot to change my mind –”

Zuko stumbled forward as the ground shifted alarmingly beneath them. His leg gave a bit of a twinge, but at least it didn’t give way. He hoped the _ground_ would be as considerate.

“Oh, no.”

…

Sokka hoped that he never became as hard-headed and downright _stubborn_ as the people in the northern Earth Kingdom. He wasn’t sure if their skulls were just naturally thick, or whether it was the volcanic fumes in the air, or whatever, but the people in Makapu were all sorts of wacky.

“Everyone, that volcano is gonna blow any second!” He yelled. “Aunt Wu was wrong!”

“Yeah, yeah,” one of the wacky Makapu women rolled her eyes. “We know you don't believe in Aunt Wu, Mister Science And Reason Lover.”

Ordinarily, Sokka would have been pretty happy to have a title like that, but they were kind of _in a hurry_. When the villagers didn’t listen to Katara either, he realized that they needed to take things into their own hands.

“Please listen to us!” Aang pleaded from the top of a roof. “You’re all in danger! And we have to get out of here! You can't rely on Aunt Wu's prediction, you have to take fate into your own hands!”

_What the slush?_

Sokka had literally just been about to say that!

Aang had the bright idea of bending the clouds in the sky, because apparently Aunt Wu did some cloud-reading to come up with her predictions. Sokka wondered whether his fever dream about clouds had been a sign that he had latent spiritual tendencies, but quickly dismissed it. He didn’t want anything to do with the spirits.

“Are you sure this cloud-bending is going to work?” Zuko asked, looking at the volcano nervously. “We haven’t got much time.”

“It’ll work,” Sokka said confidently. “These morons will believe anything.”

“What if they don’t notice the clouds?”

Sokka pointed up at the sky, where a giant, fluffy white cloud was being pulled together into the shape of a giant, grinning skull. “Pretty sure they’ll notice that.”

“Subtle,” Zuko remarked.

“That’s Aang for you,” Sokka agreed.

Apparently, Aunt Wu was quick enough on the uptake to realize that if the villagers didn’t act quickly, they were all in serious trouble. Sokka didn’t like the way seemingly everyone here was completely insane, but he’d rather they were under a delusion than under a ten-foot pile of ash.

“Lava is gonna flow downhill to this spot,” he explained to the assembled villagers. “If we can dig a deep enough trench we can channel all the lava away from the village to the river.”

Sokka was digging as fast as he could, but Zuko was on another level. He might have been having trouble with his leg, but his arms were working just fine. Sokka had to stop and take a few breaks to wipe the dirt off his face from where Zuko had been throwing the dirt over his shoulder.

“Ugh,” he grumbled, turning away to paw at his cheek. “Stupid jerkbender can do swords, but not a _shovel_ –”

He gulped as he saw the state the volcano was in now. Lava was beginning to trickle down its sides. “Dig faster! Dig faster!“

“I could go up the mountain and try and cool the lava,” Zuko offered in an undertone. “With my firebending.”

“I thought you said you wanted to keep it a secret?” Sokka muttered.

“I mean, if everyone here was dead, they could keep it a secret.”

Sokka chewed on his lip. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that. But Appa was already busy flying loose boulders and transporting equipment around the village. Chances were that word would spread that the Avatar had been in Makapu.

“Go and help Aunt Wu organize some evacuation plans,” he decided. “Hopefully she’ll listen to you quicker than she listened to us.”

“I think she will,” Zuko nodded. “Keep digging.”

Sokka nodded back, and refocused his energy on digging. At least this time his face was getting dirty because _he_ was digging, not because Zuko kept chucking earth at his face.

Aang landed in front of him with a _whoosh_.

“Aang?”

Aang ignored him, which, honestly, seemed to be the theme of Sokka’s day. “Everyone needs to evacuate!” He shouted. “We'll come for you when it's safe!”

Sokka watched on in horror as the volcano spurted out hot red lava. Zuko had said it was rock that was too hot to be solid – Sokka had dreamt about that back when he was unconscious and sucking on frogs!

Whoever was in charge of soft rock owed him a refund!

“It's too much!” Katara realized, looking horrified. “It's going to overflow!”

Sokka grabbed her hand and pulled her up. “Come on, sis – we’ve gotta move.”

They made a break for it, but Katara stumbled. Sokka had to stop to pull her back to her feet. “You okay?” He checked.

Katara nodded, and he turned back around – only to be met with Zuko.

“Whoa, buddy –” he tried to grab onto Zuko’s shoulder. “Where are you _going?_ ”

“There’s no _time_ , Sokka,” Zuko insisted. “I’ve got to try and bend the heat out, it’s the only chance we’ve got.”

“You don’t even know if you can do that,” Sokka pointed out. “That’s _lava_ , Zuko – soft rock! You’re not an earthbender!”

“It’s not about the rock, Sokka,” Zuko wrenched himself free. “It’s about the _heat_ – Aang needs help!”

Sokka instinctively ducked as a huge explosion sounded behind him. Zuko swore, and Katara let out a little squeak. Steeling himself for what he was going to see, Sokka turned around.

 _Ohhhhhh slush_.

A whole bunch of lava and smoke was exploding out of the volcano. Burning rocks! Rocks that were on _fire!_

“Run!” Zuko yelled, pushing them towards the village. Sokka watched him run forward, but a huge boulder fell out of the sky and landed in the trench, throwing up lava and blocking his path.

 _Aang’s out there alone_ , Sokka realized with horror. _He’s out there, he can’t bend lava, he hasn’t learnt earthbending or firebending –_

Suddenly, Sokka saw an orange-and-yellow blur shoot up into the sky. Aang raised his arms up, and a gust of wind sent the lava up into the air instead of straight towards the village. Then, Aang seemed to take a deep breath, and Sokka felt a gust of freezing air. It was like how Aang threw a freezing cold wind down his sleeping bag in the mornings, but times _fifty_.

Sokka watched in amazement as the freezing air cooled the lava into rock. He saw Aang land neatly on the ground next to Zuko, who sat down weakly and said something to Aang.

Aang laughed and said something back before hopping on his air scooter, and Zuko flopped down onto his face. Aang’s laughter reached Sokka from all the way down there.

Aang had saved the village, he realized numbly. He’d saved the village and now he was _laughing_ and juggling a bunch of acorns.

“Man,” he managed in awe. “Sometimes I forget what a powerful bender that kid is.”

Katara frowned next to him. “Wait, what did you just say?”

“Nothing,” he shook his head and gestured over to where Aang and Zuko were sitting. “Just that Aang is one powerful bender.”

And, boy, was Sokka glad about that. He _hated_ soft rock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aang’s understanding of how panda lilies work is an adaptation of the classic ‘Now George understand! George get coffee… then Ursula want George!’ line from _George of the Jungle_ (1997).


	35. Chapter 35

Aang hadn’t been able to give Katara any panda lilies, which had been a bit of a shame, but on the bright side, he hadn’t needed to ask Zuko to read the words _Katara is going to realize that she really likes Aang too_ out loud either. Before they’d left Makapu, Aunt Wu had told him that he could actively shape his own destiny, just like he’d shaped those clouds, and now Katara was sitting with him and talking about how he’d saved the village, and she was telling him how brave he’d been and how proud she was of him. So he counted that as a win!

She’d also asked him about whether his father had been tall and about whether all the monks had been bald, and Aang had been really happy that Katara was taking an interest in his culture without him even pushing her about it. He’d said that all the young boys training to be monks had shaved their heads, and that whilst it was voluntary and Gyatso wouldn’t have been mad at Aang if he’d grown his hair out, he liked keeping his head shaved so he could feel the air all around him.

Katara had pulled a bit of a face at that, but when Aang had asked her if anything was the matter, she’d just said that she could feel the air all around her when she was riding on Appa and it was _freezing_.

That had made Aang laugh. “Good one, Katara.”

She smiled at him and reached out a hand to rub his arrow tattoo, but he ducked away and giggled before she could do it. It always felt so _weird!_

Katara laughed along with him. “So what about your parents, Aang? Was your father tall? Did you know your mother well?”

“Well, the monks raised all of us all together as a community at the Southern Air Temple,” Aang explained. “That way, we wouldn’t end up getting too attached to our biological relatives.”

“Oh,” Katara said, sounding a bit surprised. “Well, I guess it was really nice of them to make sure you had lots of friends around with you.” Then she’d smiled at him really prettily.

Aang smiled back at her. Katara was always so encouraging; the way she let him know that he’d done a really amazing thing in saving Makapu Village from getting wiped out by that volcano had made him feel really good. So maybe she hadn’t said out loud that she really liked him too – maybe she hadn’t even realized it for herself, yet! – but Aang felt, as he guided Appa down to land in a field, that he had plenty of time to wait.

Most Air Nomads had only settled down and started families when they were, like, at least thirty. That felt like a hundred years away to Aang – and he would know! So they had plenty of time to figure things out before Katara realized that being the Avatar meant that he was a powerful bender.

He still thought it would be nice if he got her some panda lilies or something, though, so he went looking in the field Appa had landed in. There was something really weird sticking out of the grass.

“Hey, look!” Aang called the others over as he pulled it out and examined it. “A sword made out of a whale's tooth.”

Aang didn’t like weapons – the monks had always taught him that violence was never the answer – but even though the sword was deadly, it _did_ look cool.

“Let me see that,” Sokka requested, but he frowned when Aang handed it over for him to look at. “This is a Water Tribe weapon,” he announced, turning to Zuko with a serious expression on his face. “Can you guys see if you can find anything else?”

“Check the woods,” Zuko said. “The field is unmarked – if anything happened here, it was in the woods.”

“Everything okay over there?” Katara called.

“All good!” Sokka called back. “How’s the food going?”

Aang could see Katara’s mad face from where he was standing, and he was pretty glad it was aimed at Sokka.

“It _isn’t_ , because you didn’t _ask!_ ” She shouted.

“Well, now I’m asking!” Sokka yelled back, before heading further into the woods. “Come on, guys.”

“She’s gonna water whip the shit out of you,” Zuko observed.

“Not if I tell her you swore in front of Aang,” Sokka replied. “Then it’s you getting water whipped, buddy.”

“Not likely,” Zuko muttered. “She’ll probably get that fucking frying pan out again.”

“You said another bad word, Hotman,” Aang interjected. He grinned at Zuko as he turned to look at him.

Zuko chuckled as he muttered another rude word under his breath and crouched down at the bottom of a tree. “Just see if you can find anything, you little airhead.”

Aang searched around for a bit, and he found a few spear tips and arrows lying around, but he didn’t really know what he was supposed to be looking for. Sokka and Zuko seemed to know what was happening, though, because they kept saying stuff like _force multiplier_ and _unfamiliar terrain_ and _Rough Rhinos_ , all of which sounded super serious and grown-up.

“Did someone lose something?” Katara asked, making her way towards them a little while later.

“No,” Aang answered. He hopped up from where he’d been sitting down, excited to show her what they’d got. “We found something!”

Sokka explained how there must have been a battle where Water Tribe warriors ambushed a group of firebenders. Zuko pointed out that the firebenders must have fought back, but agreed that the warriors probably drove them back down the hill.

Zuko said that, judging from the way they hadn’t been able to find any armor or helmets or anything, the firebenders must have escaped. Katara had gotten a little suspicious, but Zuko had said that there was an abbey a little way away, where they’d probably know if there were any firebenders in the area. Sokka had nodded and said it would be a good idea to check it out, and Zuko had arranged to meet them later.

“I don’t know if there are any firebenders still around,” he said. “But if you find anyone from the Water Tribe around, remember – say you’re travelling with Lee.”

Katara had looked a bit offended at that. “Don’t you trust us?”

“It’s okay, Katara,” Sokka had reassured her, before turning back to Zuko. “We won’t give you away if you don’t give yourself away.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Zuko had muttered before he’d left.

Katara suddenly spotted something out in the distance – out on the water, there was a Water Tribe boat! She and Sokka had looked really happy to see something of their home, and Aang hurried along with them to see what was going on down there.

…

Sokka had been fearing the worst when they approached the ship – what would they find? Who would they find? How would they find them? But when they found out who it was, it was pretty much one of the best things they could have found!

Bato was here in the Earth Kingdom!

Oh, man, Sokka was so glad to see him, he just blurted out the first thing that came into his head.

“I almost drowned at sea, and I was more annoyed by the fact that you’d spend the afterlife laughing at me than the actual fact that I was literally about to drown at sea!”

Oh, _yikes_. That was embarrassing. And very unmanly, to admit to nearly drowning at sea. He couldn’t help but cringe, but Bato just laughed.

“Any man who fears his friends more than he fears the sea has got a battle brother that’s got his back,” he smiled, laying a hand on Sokka’s shoulder. “Spirits, it’s good to see you two. You must have grown, what? Three feet?”

Sokka snarled playfully and pushed his hand away. “I’m five-six, now!”

“Growing up like a beanpole,” Bato agreed, before he turned to Katara. “Hey there, Seal Pup.”

“Bato,” Katara whispered, practically elbowing Sokka aside so she could give their Dad’s best friend a hug. “La, we’ve been so _worried_ about you –”

Bato chuckled awkwardly. “It’s nice to hear that, Katara, but – you’re kind of crushing my bandages, there.”

“Oh!” Katara drew back. “Sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Bato reassured her. “Takes more than that to keep the Water Tribe down, right?”

“Right,” Sokka agreed. _Man_ , Bato was right! “Is that from that fight with the firebenders? Is that what you’re doing here?”

Bato gave them a serious look. “Kids, I’m only gonna ask this now because Sokka’s just brought it up.”

Uh-oh. Great job, Sokka. Nice going, buddy.

“But if Sokka’s asking what I’m doing here,” Bato continued sternly. “What in the _depths_ are you two doing here?”

Sokka and Katara exchanged guilty looks, but it was a valid question. They were a pretty long way from the South Pole.

Sokka took it upon himself to answer. “Oh, we’re here with the Avatar.” He gestured to Aang casually. “Say hey, buddy.”

Aang bowed low in a formal style, but matched it with a friendly smile. “Hi. I’m Aang!”

“That’s… great,” Bato said weakly. “So you’re here in the Earth Kingdom… all by yourself?”

“Oh, no, we’ve got a buddy, Lee,” Sokka reassured him. “He’s cool, he’s been helping us plan our journey to the North Pole.”

“That’s where we’re going, Bato,” Katara added, but Sokka had been _getting to that_. “We’re not just here for no reason – we’re taking Aang north so he can learn waterbending.”

Bato blew out his cheeks. Yeah, Sokka had found it a bit much to process at first as well. “That’s – well, kids, that’s a bit more ambitious than the stuff your Dad and I got up to when we were your age.”

Sokka and Katara exchanged another guilty look, but this one also had the understanding that neither Sokka nor Katara would take it upon themselves to answer Bato or give him any further details.

If Bato found out about how Sokka had been kidnapped by a spirit, or about how Katara had almost helped that thug Jet destroy a town, he’d probably lose his slush.

“Where’s your friend Lee?” Bato asked. “The four of you can come back to the abbey I’m staying at for the night. I’m not sure how many rooms they’ve got to spare, so it’ll be a bit crowded, but I guess we’re used to that at this time of year, huh?”

“More like every time of year,” Sokka grumbled, but he was a little preoccupied with what would happen if they ran into Zuko at the abbey. If Bato was staying there, then the firebenders probably hadn’t been around in some time, which was a relief.

“Is Dad at the abbey, too?” Katara asked.

Bato shook his head. “No, he and the other warriors should be in the Eastern Earth Kingdom by now.”

Aw, man… Sokka couldn’t help the disappointment he felt, and from the looks of things, neither could Katara. The cold wind that swept past them just felt so typical of the moment.

_Stupid spirits_.

“This is no place for a reunion,” Bato decided, like a sensible Water Tribe warrior. “Let's get inside.”

Sokka was very okay with that – especially when Bato slung his arm around him and pulled him into his side. The smell of whale blubber, oil, wood chippings and seal jerky clung all around Bato, like a real Water Tribesman ought to smell. Sokka inhaled deeply and thought about all the times he had spent throwing his boomerang, making sure he’d be ready to defend the village if and when the time came to put on the face paint of his people.

To take on the face of the wolf was to ask the spirit of the wolf to fight through him, and all his brothers in the pack would be doing the same thing. But Sokka had been a lone wolf when his father and all the men of the tribe had gone out to sea. It felt so good to be with kin again after so long.

Aang bobbed along behind them, uncharacteristically quiet, but Sokka was grateful that Aang knew that this was personal time. He loved the kid, no question about it, but sometimes Aang didn’t know when to shut up. Now, though, he just hung back and let Bato talk Sokka and Katara through some of his adventures with the Tribe’s warriors out on the high seas.

Bato had always been a great storyteller, and he knew how to craft the tale so that Katara still be interested even though it was about Manly stuff, whilst keeping it fun so that Sokka wouldn’t feel like he was missing out on all the stuff his Dad and his pack were doing without him.

“No way!” Sokka laughed, and Katara gasped as Bato finished telling them an especially crazy story about their Dad, a fishing hook, and three raw possum-chickens. “And he got them all into the catapult, just like that?”

“Just like that,” Bato confirmed amusedly. “That firebender didn’t know what hit him – and when he did, he probably wished he didn’t.”

Katara held her hand over her mouth as she giggled helplessly. “I wish I could have seen – the look on their faces!” She gasped.

“Well, mainly it was a combination of outrage, disgust, and the color red,” Bato replied dryly. “But the kind of red _we_ like, not that stupid shade on their colors.”

That set Sokka off as well, and they were still laughing as they passed through the gates of the abbey and Bato introduced them to the sisters.

…

When Bato had settled them down in his hut and they’d finished laughing over how he told them the story about the time when he and Dad had convinced Gran-Gran that they were a water spirit, Sokka had announced that he’d go off and get _Lee_ to join them. He’d laughed about how Lee would find that story about pretending to be a water spirit really funny, but Katara had watched her brother go off to find Zuko with a bit of a funny feeling in her chest.

Katara wasn’t so opposed to Zuko’s company as she had been when he had joined their group, but she found that she still didn’t _like_ the idea. Bato’s hut was just like their homes back at the South Pole, and the last time a firebender had been in Katara’s home…

_It’s okay,_ she reminded herself. She had her mother’s necklace back. Somehow, the Blue Spirit had gotten it back to Aang, and now she had it back around her neck again, where it belonged.

“Here you go, Katara,” Bato handed her a steaming cup of tea. “Careful, though – it’s hot.”

“Thanks, Bato,” she smiled. She inhaled through her nose and blew on the surface of the tea for a moment before looking up at him in surprise. “Ginger?”

He gave her a small, sad smile. “It was always your mother’s favorite. I remember her drinking it all the time.”

Katara blinked hard, and she couldn’t help but touch her mother’s necklace to reassure her it was still there. She took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes, reaching out with her bending to feel the hot liquid in the cup. It felt warm in a way that went beyond temperature.

It felt like _home_.

Once she felt like she had her emotions under control, she opened her eyes to see Bato and Aang still watching her intently.

“It’s my favorite, too,” she said eventually, giving Bato a small smile of her own.

Sokka had to stoop as he came back through the entrance to the hut. Katara waited for a moment, but there wasn’t any Zuko behind him. She looked at Aang, who shrugged at her.

“No Lee?” Bato asked. “I hope you didn’t get lost on your way to find him.”

“What?” Sokka made a face. “Me? No, I don’t get _lost_. I can read maps. Aang’s the one who got lost – we recently ended up taking a detour to Taku for some weird reason –”

“Sokka?” Katara coughed and raised her eyebrows at him. “Lee?”

“Oh.” Sokka frowned. “Yeah, Bato, I think he felt a bit uncomfortable about joining us – he said something about not wanting to intrude. But, uh… I think you’ll be able to meet him tomorrow, if that’s cool?”

“If you wanted,” Bato nodded. “But on a related note, there's something I should tell you kids. I'm expecting a message from your father.”

Katara felt a rush of excitement. She hadn’t seen her dad in over two years!

“Really?” She asked, hoping that Bato would repeat it, just so she could feel that excitement again. She was going to see her Dad?

“When?” Sokka asked.

“Any day now,” Bato explained. “Your father said he'd send a message when they found the rendezvous point. If you wait until the message arrives, you can come with me, and see your father again.”

“It's been over two years since we've seen Dad,” Sokka said, voicing what Katara had just been thinking. “That would be so incredible, Katara!”

“I do really miss him,” Katara admitted, but it felt like the words didn’t even come _close_ to capturing how much she’d wanted to see her Dad’s face again. “It _would_ be great to see Dad.”

But… she knew she couldn’t.

“It’s been far too long, hasn’t it?” Bato agreed. “I’m not sure when word will arrive, but when it does – well, you kids will be the first to know.”

“It would be great,” Sokka said, but he was chewing his lip and his brow was drawn close. “But we can't. We have to take Aang to the North Pole first. I think Lee wants to get there as soon as possible.”

“I’m sorry, Bato,” Katara apologized, but again, it felt like the words didn’t even come close. “But we don’t know how far we’d have to travel. I don’t think we’ve got time for a long detour, and – and I don’t want our group to be split up.”

_To be split up again_ , she allowed in her head, but she wasn’t going to say that to Bato and make him panic.

Bato looked very serious as he nodded. “I'm sure your father would understand, and be proud that his children are helping the Avatar.”

“Is Dad doing okay?” Katara asked, eager for any more news she could get. “Are the rest of the men safe?”

“Your father’s doing great, Katara,” Bato reassured her. “He’s still not as handsome or as strong as me, but he’s finally starting to come to terms with it, and he’s a better man for it.”

“Okay, Bato,” she rolled her eyes fondly. “And you say Dad’s the one with a rubbish sense of humor.”

“I don’t just say that about your Dad,” Bato pointed out. “I say that about Sokka, too.”

“Thanks,” Sokka muttered, picking up a piece of jerky and tossing it at Bato’s head. It hit him in the neck, and Bato picked it up and dangled it in front of Sokka.

Sokka pouted and snatched it back, and Katara had to laugh at how it looked like a polar bear dog playing with a pup. It was like Bato was teaching Sokka how to hunt, and Sokka just wanted to jump around.

There was a rustling at the entrance, and Katara turned around to see Aang squeeze into the hut.

“Hey, everyone!” He waved at them. “Sorry I was gone so long.”

“Hey, Aang,” Katara greeted him, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed that she’d been so inattentive. “I didn't notice you left.”

“Yup,” Aang agreed, sitting down and crossing his legs. “But now I'm back. Sure could go for some delicious sea prunes!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aang's explanation for why he shaves his head was taken from the Avatar Wiki article on the [Air Nomads](https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Air_Nomads#Appearance).


	36. Chapter 36

Aang felt like the map in his inside pocket was weighing a hundred tons when Bato took him, Katara and Sokka out ice dodging. He felt really happy to be involved in a rite of passage for young Water Tribe members, but after the way Katara and Sokka had been so excited to see their Dad, Aang didn’t really want to do Water Tribe stuff.

The monks had been right! Even Monk Tashi, and he had almost _never_ been right! Your earthly attachments really _did_ blind people to what they needed to see, which was that Aang wanted Katara and Sokka to stay with him and not go off looking for their Dad!

Aang hadn’t been able to tell Zuko about how the messenger had turned up last night when he’d been sulking with Appa, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He knew that he was technically lying to Katara and Sokka by not telling them he’d been given the map Bato had been waiting for, and he didn’t want Zuko to get mad at him. Zuko would probably tell Katara and Sokka, and then they’d be mad at him as well, and then they’d leave and go find their Dad and tell him. And then their Dad would get mad as well, and then the whole Water Tribe would be mad at Aang and start spreading rumors about him, and then Aang would go down in history as Avatar Aang, the Freakishly Small Avatar with Big Ears!

Bato said that ice dodging was a ceremonial test of wisdom, bravery, and trust. Sokka had invited Zuko along to watch and maybe even take part, but Zuko had gotten kind of weird about it and said that it was a part of Water Tribe culture and he wasn’t sure Bato would want him along to watch it. Aang had pointed out that he wasn’t Water Tribe, but he was still going along, and Zuko had gotten really defensive and reminded him that he’d already spent time penguin sledding at the South Pole, so it wasn’t like he wasn’t totally unknown to the Southern Water Tribe. Then Katara had gotten a bit offended at Zuko.

“If you’re too high and mighty to appreciate our culture, you don’t _have_ to be there,” she’d told him angrily. “You can just stay here at the abbey, unless the ointments and perfumes they’re crafting are too strong for your oh-so-sensitive nose!”

Zuko had sighed deeply. “I didn’t mean to disrespect you, Katara,” he’d explained. “I don’t think you’re peasants, or anything like that. I just wouldn’t want to intrude.”

But Katara hadn’t wanted to hear it. “Come on, Sokka. Aang, you can come with us, because you’re someone who _understands_ how important ice dodging is to my people!”

Aang had wanted to tell Zuko that he was pretty sure Katara wasn’t _really_ that mad at him, but he’d also been kind of worried that if he talked with Zuko, he’d end up accidentally telling him that he’d been given the scroll with instructions on how to find Katara’s Dad.

But now, in the middle of the sea with a whole bunch of tall, sharp, jagged rocks right in front of their boat, Aang was getting kind of worried that maybe he was going to get really hurt in this ice dodging thing. If he’d known it was going to be this scary, he would have stayed back at the abbey with Zuko and spent his morning sniffing ointments and perfumes!

“Sokka, you steer and call the shots,” Bato instructed. “Lead wisely. Katara, you secure the main sail. The winds can be brutal, so be brave.”

He turned to face Aang, and Aang suddenly felt worried that the map was going to fall out onto the deck.

“Aang,” Bato continued. “You control the jib. Without your steady hand, we all go down. Your position is about trust.”

“I know that!” Aang said. “Why wouldn't I know that? I'm the _Avatar_. I know about trust!”

Aang may or may not have felt a little targeted by Bato telling him what his job was about. He’d told Katara and Sokka too, sure, but that one felt _way_ more personal!

“For this is to be done right, I cannot help,” Bato said simply. “You pass or fail on your own.”

Wait, nobody had told Aang about this part! He’d thought Bato was going to help them!

“Aang, ease up on the jib,” Sokka instructed him. Okay! Aang could do that. There was no reason he couldn’t do that.

Aang did it!

“Katara, steady – Aang, less sail.”

Aang could do that, too. He felt himself becoming more relaxed. This was actually pretty easy once you got the hang of it. They hadn’t needed Bato at all!

“Katara, give him room,” Sokka called out, before breaking off. “Aang, helm to lee. Helm to lee!”

“Lee?” Aang asked, confused. “I thought he wasn’t coming along?”

“Aang!” Sokka shouted. “Keep your focus! Come on!”

Aang thought that was a bit unfair, considering he was the only one keeping his focus. Sokka was the one who was so keen on seeing his family that he was just _ditching_ Aang!

“There’s no way through,” Katara said nervously as their ship approached a big set of rocks.

“We can make it,” Sokka said confidently. “Soft rocks, hard rocks – you ain’t seen _nothing_ yet!”

“Sokka, you've already proven yourself,” Bato began, beginning to get to his feet. “Maybe we should –”

“Aang, I'm gonna need air in that sail,” Sokka interrupted. “Katara, I want you to bend as much water as you can between us and those rocks. Now!”

“Sokka!” Bato sounded a bit alarmed now. Uh-oh. “Sokka, what are you doing?”

Sokka turned to grin at him, and then caught Aang’s eye and winked. “Something deadly – and something _cool_.”

Even though he was still kind of mad at Sokka, Aang couldn’t help but grin back. That was _awesome!_

Whilst Katara bent the water beneath the boat, Aang concentrated on trying to make the sails billow with airbending blasts. The boat was speeding up because of the wind, and Katara was making the water rise up in a big wave. This was so cool!

Katara and Sokka cheered and hugged each other as Bato’s big boat cleared the rocks. Then, they grabbed hold of Aang and pulled him into the group hug. He couldn’t really be mad at them for getting ready to ditch him when they were giving him such a good hug.

As Bato daubed the weird purple paint on Aang’s forehead to mark him as a trusted honorary member of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang realized something. Sokka had been right. Aang couldn’t keep trying to make Katara and Sokka act like airbenders when they weren’t. Even if they were too focused on their attachment to their family, he had to let them be Water Tribe and have that attachment. If they weren’t ready to give it up, he couldn’t make them.

“I’m sorry,” he said sadly, taking the map out of his tunic and giving it to Bato. He didn’t want to look Katara or Sokka in the eye. “You can't trust me.”

…

Katara didn’t understand why Aang looked so sad, or what he had given Bato. But Bato was looking so serious that she had to ask.

“Aang, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Sokka repeated. Katara spun around to see Sokka standing with Bato, holding one corner of the map. But his eyes were fixed on Aang. “What’s wrong is that he’s had the map pointing the way to Dad the whole time!”

“What?” Katara stepped back so she could try and keep Sokka and Aang both in her sight. “Aang, why would you do that?”

Aang just shrugged his shoulders as he looked down at the sand.

Katara felt cold inside. She hadn’t seen her Dad in two years, and Aang had wanted to stop her seeing him? When would he have told her that he’d hidden this from her? Would he ever have told her?

“This was important information, Aang,” Bato said, and though he didn’t sound it, Katara could tell he was angry. “You shouldn’t have kept this from us.”

“You have to understand,” Aang began to speak. “I was afraid that you’d –”

“No, Aang!” Katara shouted. “ _You_ need to understand! This is our father we’re talking about here! This is my _Dad!_ ”

Aang had lied, she realized suddenly. Aang had been _lying_ to them!

“You and Lee can get to the North Pole on your own,” Sokka told Aang grimly. His blue eyes were cold. “You’ve got Appa, you’ve got your waterbending scroll. Ask Lee about the Dark Water Spirit. But I’m going to find Dad.”

“Sokka,” Bato began. “Sokka, wait a moment –”

“Katara, are you coming?” Sokka turned to face her, and she suddenly felt very small as her brother, her Dad’s best friend and the Avatar all looked at her.

Katara turned to Aang, who looked so small. But he’d lied to her. Not like Jet, but he’d still lied. And he would have left her Dad waiting for Bato, just like she’d been left waiting for him and Sokka.

She closed her eyes. “I’m with you, Sokka.”

Bato walked with them as Sokka stormed on ahead. His shoulders were tense and he was swearing under his breath, but Bato made no move to rebuke him, and so Katara thought it wouldn’t be her place to do it either.

She couldn’t believe it. The other day, she’d heard Sokka say that Aang was a powerful bender, and she’d realized what that could mean. She’d spent the whole flight from Makapu talking to him, trying to get to know him. And maybe she’d asked certain questions because she’d been a little interested in how Aang might look when he was a little older, once his voice had broken – she’d been a little unnerved by how Aang seemed to prefer being bald, and it would be a little odd if she was always going to be taller than him – but more than that, she’d wanted to _understand_ him.

She had wanted to learn about his home and his family. It had been a little odd to hear about the way the monks had lived, sure, but she’d been willing to put that aside in order to try and understand. But Aang didn’t seem to understand or even _care_ about how much her home and her family mattered to _her_.

He looked so sad as he watched them pack up their stuff from Bato’s hut. Katara left him the waterbending scroll, like Sokka had said. She’d miss it, but she’d memorized all the forms and illustrations, and whenever she used it now, it was just to experiment with what she’d already learnt. She wanted to be the best bender she could be; she wanted to make her Tribe proud.

She remembered that Aang had tried to stop her from seeing her Dad, and she had to fight back the urge to yell at him when she walked past him with Sokka and Bato.

“Good luck,” she managed stiffly. Zuko hadn’t come to see them off, but she couldn’t find it in her to care.

“Okay,” he mumbled. He looked so small. “You, too.”

She was proud of herself for not looking back behind her as she walked away with Sokka and Bato. She heard a wolf howl out as they walked through the woods, and it wrenched at her heart to hear an animal in pain.

“That wolf sounds so sad,” she murmured to Sokka.

“It’s probably wounded,” he replied tightly. He was clutching the straps of his bag with a white-knuckled grip, and he was marching on without saying much.

“No,” Bato said quietly. “It's been separated from the pack. I understand that pain. It's how I felt when the Water Tribe warriors had to leave me behind. They were my family.” He paused for a moment. “And being apart from them was more painful than my wounds.”

Katara knew what he meant. When she had been separated from Sokka and Aang, she hadn’t been worried about herself. She’d just been so worried about them. But she wondered if Aang even knew how much it hurt when she had spent so long separated from her father.

But, she thought to herself, that wasn’t Aang’s fault. If he had been brought up in a temple where blood family wasn’t as important as the community the monks had made for themselves, how could he understand what her Dad meant to her and Sokka? What if Aang had seen the family they had built for themselves on their journey, and he’d thought that they were leaving that behind?

Had Aang thought that they were like Dad, leaving him behind with Zuko whilst they went off without him?

Katara came to a decision.

“Sokka?”

But Sokka had already come to a halt.

“We need to go back,” he said. “I want to see Dad, but…” He swallowed. “Helping Aang is where we're needed the most.”

Katara felt so relieved that her big brother knew what she knew. In the Water Tribes, family was what held you all together through anything.

Bato walked up and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Your father will understand,” he said seriously. “And I know he's proud of you.”

Sokka nodded. “Thanks, Bato.”

“I know where to go from here,” Bato continued. He handed Katara the map, and leaned in to press a kiss to the top of her head. “Take this in case you want to find us. I'll leave a message at the rendezvous point.”

“You go on ahead, Katara,” Sokka said. “I need to talk with Bato about something.”

Bato raised an eyebrow. “I mean, I can give you a kiss on the head too, Sokka, but if you want it to be _alone_ …”

Katara giggled as Sokka started protesting.

“I’ll go find Aang, Sokka,” she nodded. “Meet us back at the abbey?”

She was off running before she heard Sokka’s reply, but she heard a wolf howl behind her, and she felt _strong_ as she ran.

…

Zuko hadn’t wanted to offer Bato of the Southern Water Tribe any disrespect by showing up to a sacred ritual of his people without knowing how to honor it. So, in that respect, he had been telling Sokka the truth when he had offered that as his explanation for not going down to introduce himself and watch the ice dodging. But the warriors of the Water Tribe had been causing trouble for the Fire Nation for over two years, and Zuko was very aware that he was – that he had a fairly distinctive face.

His Agni Kai had been a public affair, and hundreds of people had watched his father set his face on fire. The propaganda campaign that had followed had left people in no doubt that the burned and banished Prince Zuko had no honor unless he captured the Avatar. He was a firebender with a burn scar across half his ruined face, and he was travelling with the Avatar. If Bato connected the dots…

Zuko didn’t want to harm the Water Tribesman, but he would if it came to it. He’d rather it didn’t come to it, so he’d stayed away and stayed behind at the abbey, and he’d been bored enough to test out the different perfumes. He hadn’t _enjoyed_ it, exactly, but he figured that if there was one thing Uncle loved… well, that would be tea. Or possibly Pai Sho. But if there were _up to and including five things that Uncle loved_ , that list would include frivolous purchases for exorbitant sums. Perfume definitely counted.

He was startled out of his reverie by a hideous shriek, and the sound of shouting and screams coming from the courtyard. He bolted for the door, grabbing a bottle of perfume as he went. One of Jeong Jeong’s soldiers had taught the Blue Spirit how to make a Bujing Cocktail, but Zuko wasn’t sure whether the perfume was flammable, so it might just end up as a blunt instrument. But he swore as he saw who was standing in the courtyard.

 _Zhao_.

And that damn shirshu, too!

This was bad, Zuko realized, thinking rapidly. If Zhao was here, that meant he’d found some way to track them. But _how?_

Zuko had taken Katara’s necklace back, there should have been no way for Zhao to track them. That’s what he and Sokka had been _planning_ , but they’d been stuck on how to get something of theirs to Zhao that could be tracked without compromising Aang and Katara’s safety. How had he found them?

“Blue Spirit!” Zhao roared, holding up a piece of bloodied cloth. “Show yourself!”

 _Shit_.

Zuko hadn’t even _considered_ what might have happened to the bandage he’d lost in Pohuai.

“I know you’re here, Blue Spirit!” Zhao shouted, clenching the rag in his fist. “And if you don’t come out, I’m going to burn every nun I see, until there’s _none!_ ”

 _Double shit_.

But seriously, fucking _Zhao_.

Even his jokes were awful.

He had to get rid of the shirshu, Zuko knew. If it had been able to track him, that was bad enough. But if it managed to paralyze him, too –

Paralyzed and at Zhao’s mercy was a horrifying prospect.

_Think!_

Zuko had never thought he would willingly recall the horrific occasion when Uncle Iroh had drunk _way_ too much and taken off half his clothing in an attempt to impress June, but that moment when he’d stepped out of his sandals and the bounty hunter and her shirshu had both been sent reeling had taught Zuko a couple of lessons.

First, that personal hygiene was absolutely vital. Second, that a shirshu was _useless_ without its sense of smell.

He took careful aim, and launched the bottle of perfume into the air… _Yes!_ he cheered inwardly as one of the bottles shattered on the shirshu’s nose.

Zhao’s face wrinkled in confusion. “What the –”

“Nyla!” June yelled, as the shirshu began yowling. “Nyla, what is _wrong_ with you, girl –”

Nyla let out a long, high-pitched whine and slumped down to the floor. Zuko breathed a little easier after that. Now, if he could just figure out a way to get close to Zhao without giving himself away…

“Enough of this,” Zhao seethed, striding towards the edge of the courtyard and grabbing one of the nuns. She yelped as he dragged her along, but _screamed_ as Zhao set a fireball in his hand.

 _Triple shit_. Come on, Zuko, _think_ , for Agni’s sake –

“Here’s the first, Blue Spirit!” Zhao yelled, and the old lady let out a sob as he held his hand up. “Your face might be blue, but theirs will be burned _black_ by the time I’m through!”

_Think!_

“You’ve got until _three_.”

“Come on,” Zuko muttered frantically. “Come on, _think_ –”

“One!”

He couldn’t attack, he wasn’t quick enough to stop Zhao from burning them –

“Two!”

Fucking Zhao – attacking civilians, that _bastard_ had no honor –

_Wait!_

“Wait!” He yelled, crashing out into the courtyard. “I’m here, Zhao! _I’m here!_ ”

Zhao’s face was almost worth the pure, sickening dread Zuko had felt as he had heard that old nun crying.

“Prince Zuko,” Zhao said disbelievingly. “Prince _Zuko_.”

 _Former Prince_ , Zuko mentally corrected him, but he didn’t think Zhao was in the mood for semantics.

“Me,” Zuko confirmed.

“ _You_. The Blue Spirit. _You_.”

Zuko gave a stiff nod.

“I’ll admit,” June said from where she was still sitting on top of the downed Nyla. “I didn’t see it coming.”

“Impossible,” Zhao still seemed to be struggling with the concept. “You’re just a – a _child_. You’re _weak_.”

“I’m _here_ , Zhao,” he growled. “Let her _go_.”

That seemed to do it. Zhao’s face turned ugly. Uglier.

“You _dare_ to give me orders, boy? You lost your power when you lost your honor.”

 _I have more honor than you_ , Zuko wanted to say. But he couldn’t. Not when Zhao still held that old lady.

“Let her go, Zhao,” he repeated. “You don’t need to do this.”

“You’re right,” Zhao agreed. He threw the nun aside, and she gasped as she hit the stone floor. Zuko tensed.

“Why burn them,” Zhao continued, stepping forward slowly, “When I can burn _you?_ ”

“We don’t have to do this either, Zhao.”

“We do, Prince Zuko.” Zhao’s eyes were slits in his face, but the malice _burned_. “You’ve been burned to save weaklings before. I’ll burn the _other_ half this time.”

 _To do the right thing_ , Zuko reminded himself _. To do what has to be done, when no one else will do it_.

“Agni Kai,” he challenged.

“Agni Kai,” Zhao spat.

This time, Zuko understood the risk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Bujing cocktail is my nod to the improvised incendiary device known as a [Molotov cocktail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_cocktail).


	37. Chapter 37

Aang had really messed up. No matter how often Appa tried to reassure him that it wasn’t the end of the world, he couldn’t help but feel like he was allowed to feel like it was _at least_ a little bit like the end of the world as they sat on the beach and looked out at the sea where he had gone ice dodging only a couple of hours ago.

He had lied to Katara and Sokka and Bato about the map, and then he’d just felt too guilty to keep lying and had confessed, but they had been so angry that they had left him behind to go with Bato. And now Aang had to go and tell Zuko that Katara and Sokka had left to go and see their Dad, but they had to go on to the North Pole and try and find a waterbending master to teach Aang on their own.

Aang didn’t know whether he wanted to find a waterbending master without Katara. She’d been there the whole time, and they’d wanted to go and find a teacher in the Northern Water Tribe _together_. That had been the whole point!

And things had been going so well, Aang thought sadly. At least until Bato had shown up. Katara had been asking about the Southern Air Temple, and what life was like for the monks, and about how Aang had shaved his head, and she’d really seemed to be taking an interest in his culture. Aang had been really happy to share his memories with her, and he’d tried to let her know how fun it was at the Air Temples, with everyone playing airball and Pai Sho and baking fruit pies together.

Even when the other boys training to be monks hadn’t let Aang play with them, Monk Gyatso had always been there to listen to him and help him make the perfect fruit pies, with the gooey center. Katara did all the cooking at lunchtimes and dinnertimes, so Aang knew she liked stuff to do with food. He thought she’d really enjoy making cool fruit pies with him.

But then she and Sokka had seen Bato, with his weird ceremonial raccoon headpiece, and his gross animal furs, and his _super_ _gross_ sea prunes. Aang wondered how they had gone from Katara being so interested in him and his culture to suddenly ignoring him because she had suddenly found a bit of _her_ culture again. He felt annoyed about it, and he felt guilty about being annoyed, because Gyatso had always told him that compassion and tolerance weren’t signs of weakness, but of strength.

Katara was so compassionate, and Aang wanted to be tolerant of those parts of her culture that didn’t fit with what the Air Nomads had taught him. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry he’d tried on Bato’s raccoon headdress, but he couldn’t tell her that if she was set on going off with Bato and Sokka to find her Dad.

“Aang!”

_Katara?_

“Aang, behind you!”

Aang looked up and turned around.

Katara was coming back!

She didn’t hate him!

“Katara!” He cheered, hopping up off Appa and running across the sand towards her. “You’re back!”

“Sokka and I decided that we couldn’t leave you guys alone,” Katara explained. “I’m sorry we went off, Aang, but we’re back now.”

“Sokka’s coming back too?”

“He’s just talking to Bato,” Katara said. “I think he wanted to say goodbye, but he might have been worried about crying in front of me. He’s still coming back, though, Aang.”

Aang couldn’t believe it. After the way the older boy had gone off, Aang had been worried that he’d never forgive Aang. But now they were okay again! He wouldn’t even have to tell Zuko that he’d made their friends so mad that they’d stormed off, because they were back again!

Sokka was like a boomerang, Aang realized. He always came back.

“Can we go and pick him up?” He asked. “Do you think he’d be okay with that?”

Katara smiled at him, and Aang was so relieved that she didn’t seem to be mad at him anymore. He was happy, she was happy, and even Sokka sounded happy. Zuko would probably be happy when he’d heard about how they’d all got through their ice dodging okay and gotten their tribal marks!

“I think Sokka would be really glad about not having to walk all that way back to the abbey,” Katara said with a little laugh. Aang was just so relieved that Katara wasn’t mad anymore that he had to laugh along with her – it was like an easy way to let out all the emotions he was feeling.

But he had been feeling a lot of emotions just before Katara had showed up, and he should probably tell her about them. He’d tried to tell her how much he’d liked her in Makapu Village, and he’d missed his chance, but now he needed to tell her how awful he’d felt about hiding the map from her and Sokka.

“I’m really sorry for not telling you about the map, Katara,” he told her. “I was just really scared that you’d leave!”

“Oh, Aang,” Katara pulled him into a hug. She felt so warm and encouraging and _nice_ , until she pulled away and looked at him. “Sokka and I – we’re not going to leave you. Sokka made you a promise that we’d get you to the North Pole safely, and I made you a promise that we’re going to learn waterbending together. When you make a Water Tribe promise, you don’t break those promises.”

Aang couldn’t help how much he was smiling. He was just so relieved! He wanted to give Katara another hug, but she was still smiling at him, and he was a little nervous that if he tried to make that move, the moment where they were both smiling at each other would end.

“Come on, Aang,” Katara broke the moment for him. “Let’s go and get Sokka, and then we can go pick Zuko up.”

“You mean on Appa?” Aang asked.

“Sure,” Katara flashed him a quick grin. “We’d better get a move on if we want to get to the North Pole!”

Aang felt so happy, he thought he might even be able to _fly_. He could only remember one airbender who had been able to unlock the secret of flying, but Aang thought he’d be able to give it a really good go.

Maybe later, he decided, once they’d picked up Sokka and Zuko. Then he could try to fly. He could even see if he could write _Aang will achieve airbending mastery and learn to fly_ out and get Zuko to read it out loud. But he needed Zuko around to do that.

He could see Sokka down by the woods, running towards the beach and yelling for Katara. That was already one of them!

Only Zuko to go!

…

Zuko had cut the bloody cloth Zhao had used to track him into two _prajiad_ and tied them around his biceps. He didn’t need luck, and he didn’t want it, but he still felt uncomfortable wearing the hastily-made bands. They didn’t strike him as especially reverential.

Agni Kai was not sacred to the Fire Nation under Fire Lord Ozai, but it was certainly as close as anything in the Nation came.

As the great spirit Agni protected those of the Nation, and those who did right in his eyes, the firebending duel took place under his protection. Onlookers were forbidden from interfering, nor could they be brought into proceedings. The duel was settled between two combatants only, under Agni’s watchful eye. Accordingly, it was understood that Agni’s favored would win the duel, because they did right in his eyes.

Nearly three years ago, Zuko had done the right thing, and he had been marked by Agni’s favored as dishonored for what he had done.

Zuko couldn’t remember reading about an Agni Kai taking place outside the Nation, and he wondered if that meant that this duel was taking place beyond Agni’s judgement. If so, it would mean that Zuko’s dishonor would not count against him in the duel – but, then again, he realized grimly, it meant that nothing Zhao did in the Agni Kai would count against his honor in the eyes of the Fire Nation, either.

The Fire Nation’s understanding of honor followed that of the Fire Lord, and the Fire Lord had burned his own child for speaking out of turn.

Zhao had watched, Zuko knew. The first time he had seen Zuko after his banishment, Zhao had made sure that Zuko had known.

Zuko waited until Zhao turned his back before he turned away, and even then, he still half-expected a fireball to the back.

“Turn!” June instructed.

Zuko turned around as Zhao was already reaching up to hurl his shoulder garments to the ground. _Typical_ , he seethed.

Jeong Jeong had taught Zhao, and he had made sure to inform Zuko of his former student’s failings. In many ways, Zhao was a perfect example of Sozin School – he was an aggressive, destructive bender, and he looked to attack, _always_. He attacked from a strong root, but constantly advanced on his opponent, bending from the muscles.

Uncle always told Zuko that firebending came from the breath. Because of this, Zuko could concentrate on using his muscles to _move_.

He moved to his left, protecting his weaker side, and sprinted around Zhao as the older man shouted and attacked with a fireblast that immediately set Zuko’s back sweating as it landed just behind him. He would have been faster, but his left calf was still healing.

Zuko took a moment to hate Jet some more.

He tried to move out of the way of Zhao’s attacks, but Zhao was cutting off the route in front of him with his flames just as quickly as Zuko could try and make a move. He had to slice his hand through the air and pay careful attention to his elbow in order to make a gap big enough for him to dart through. He tried to lash out with a firebending kick as he went, but Zhao didn’t even wait for it to reach _halfway_ before he fought back with a grunt.

“Always running!” Zhao shouted. “Always afraid to fight!”

Zuko snarled as he threw a couple of fireballs into the air in front of him, before backhanding them towards Zhao as they fell in a move he had adapted from Bumi’s earthbending.

“And a _terrible_ bender!” Zhao laughed as he pressed his hands together and made the fireballs dissipate.

This wasn’t working, Zuko realized. He couldn’t keep avoiding Zhao and trying to fight from the sidelines. As long as he let Zhao hold the middle of the courtyard, Zhao could dictate the terms, and Zuko would be left struggling to impose himself on the duel.

_Remember your basics_ , Uncle had always told him. _Master your basics_.

Uncle had told him that the knotweed tile was not always the most effective, but Zuko knew that wasn’t the same thing as telling him to _never_ use it. The whole point of the knotweed tile was that it was a fire tile. It consumed its surroundings and brought them under its control. It’s what fire _did_.

Zuko took a deep breath, and exhaled in a fast _hah_ as he directed another fireball at Zhao. It exploded out of his hands in time with his breathing, and blasted into Zhao with a blazing concussive blast. Zhao barely managed to get his hands up and set his root before it hit him.

Zuko allowed himself a smirk. _The root_.

Uncle had always said Zuko’s firebending basics were his greatest weapons.

He spun around and launched a roundhouse kick at Zhao, who had to create his own flames to push away the danger. But it was enough to make Zhao take a step backwards.

He lashed out with a left, _driving_ the fire down into the stonework. Jeong Jeong had taught him how to create a wall of fire that spread across the ground, and whilst the deserter had told Zuko it was to be used primarily to hinder an opponent or obstruct their vision, Zuko sent the rippling flares into Zhao’s body. He had to step backwards to avoid the flame, and Zuko pushed again – a _right_ , a _left_ – advancing on Zhao as he fought.

He followed it up with a double blast, sending Zhao backwards with a shout, and sent an arcing burst of flame that sent Zhao skidding and tumbling and falling onto his back. He ran forward to lean down over the fallen bender, and looked him in the eyes as he set his fist on fire.

“Do it!” Zhao challenged him. “ _Do_ it – show you can finally hold more than a _candle_ to your sister –”

Zuko gritted his teeth, and _shouted_ as he punched –

Into the stone to the left of Zhao’s head.

_I refuse to let him win_.

Zhao was looking disbelievingly at him as Zuko rose to his feet, panting.

“That’s it?”

Zuko could hear something else in his voice besides the ever-present anger. It sounded almost like _disappointment_.

“Your father raised a _coward_.”

“I’m my mother’s son,” Zuko spat back, before he turned around and began to walk away.

He should have realized that Zhao would not fight with honor.

He heard a shout, and felt the onrushing heat, but he couldn’t turn before the fireball blasted him into the wall.

…

Sokka had understood why Zuko wanted them to call him _Lee_ in the Earth Kingdom. Zuko was a Fire Nation name, Lee was a pretty common _whatever_ name – it made sense. He’d been a little more confused when he’d wanted them to call him Lee in the Fire Nation, but when it had come out that he was banished and didn’t want his uncle to be put in danger, Sokka had been able to get that, too.

Dad had left to make sure the Fire Nation didn’t attack the Tribe, but he wasn’t dumb enough to write to the Fire Nation and say _by the way, the Southern Water Tribe sank your ships_.

But when Zuko had told Sokka that he couldn’t tell _Bato_ who he was, that had been confusing. Bato didn’t like the Fire Nation much, sure, but he wasn’t a hateful guy. Sokka had known Bato his whole life, and he couldn’t remember Bato ever being mad unless someone gave him a reason. If Zuko didn’t give him a reason to get mad at him, Bato would be fine.

The more he thought about it, the more Sokka wondered if Bato would have a reason to get mad with Zuko.

“You go on ahead, Katara,” he said. “I need to talk with Bato about something.”

Bato looked a bit confused. “I mean, I can give you a kiss on the head too, Sokka, but if you want it to be _alone_ …”

“Oh, come on!” Sokka groaned. “Don’t even _start_ , okay – I know I said I was hugging that old fisherman, but that was because I thought I was going to _die_ , alright? There was this girl on Kyoshi Island, okay – her name’s Suki, she’s _awesome_ –”

“I’ll go find Aang, Sokka,” Katara interrupted. Oh, right – they’d been in the middle of something! “Meet us back at the abbey?”

“Make sure you give the map to Lee!” Sokka yelled after her. “Aang’s awful with directions!”

“Your friend Lee seems like a capable young man,” Bato observed. “I’m glad you’ve got someone you can trust with you.”

_Yeah, Bato… That’s the thing._

“Lee’s been really helpful,” Sokka acknowledged. “He’s told us a lot of stuff that’s proved to be really interesting.”

“I hope you’ve been telling him some interesting stuff too,” Bato replied. His face split into a smirk. “Never let it be said that the Southern Water Tribe is as boring as the snow.”

“Yeah, he told me something the other day that was pretty interesting,” Sokka began cautiously. “He told me about this guy Zuko.”

The smirk fell off Bato’s face immediately. “ _Zuko?_ ”

“Yeah,” Sokka nodded. “Yeah, do you know him?”

“Sokka,” Bato suddenly gripped his shoulders. “Have you come up against Prince Zuko?”

Sokka must have misheard that.

“Sorry, Bato,” he chuckled, stepping out of Bato’s grasp and rolling his shoulders. “I know you gave me the Mark of the Wise, not the Mark of the Hard of Hearing, but I’m probably getting some early-onset deafness… did you just say _Prince_ Zuko?”

Whatever Bato said next, Sokka kind of… didn’t hear. He only caught the bare essentials.

_Disagreed with the Fire Lord. Banished. Burn scar. Capture the Avatar to regain his honor._

“Listen, Sokka,” Bato said seriously. “If you’ve got Prince Zuko after you, that’s dangerous. That firebender won’t stop until he’s found the Avatar. His ship is in the northern waters, and he’s sailing with General Iroh – Sokka, whatever Lee’s telling you, you have _got_ to be careful.”

When they’d left Omashu, Aang had called Zuko’s uncle _Iroh_.

_Ohhhhhhhhh slush_.

“Sure would be a shame if we saw him,” Sokka mumbled. He was at least ninety-five percent sure his knees were about to turn to soft rock.

“Well, hopefully, you won’t catch sight of him and he won’t catch sight of you,” Bato finished. “But Sokka, if the Fire Prince is after you, it’s not just Aang that’ll be in danger – it’ll be all of you.”

“Yeah,” Sokka said. “Yeah – uh, Bato, look, I’m… I’m pretty sure Lee’s pregnant.”

Bato jerked back. “ _What?_ ”

Sokka had to find Katara and Aang, _fast_. “Crazy, right?”

“Is that even _possible?_ ”

“I know, I was super surprised too,” Sokka babbled on. “Anyway, I’ve gotta go check on him.”

“Alright, Sokka,” Bato seemed to have recovered his composure. “Tell Katara we love her. Me, her Dad – all of us. And take some of that love for yourself, Kit Wolf.”

Sokka hadn’t been called that in _years_ , but he didn’t have time to appreciate it now. He quickly gripped Bato’s proffered forearm, and he was sprinting as soon as he released it.

Just a big misunderstanding, he told himself as he ran. There was _no_ way.

There was _no way_ that Zuko had been trying to capture Aang this whole fucking time.

_No way_.

But then again, if you’d told Sokka on the flight out of Omashu that Zuko was a firebender, he would have said there was _no way_.

_Bumi told me that_ what _you are isn’t as important as_ who _you are. If you’re on our side, that’s more important than you being a firebender, or from the Fire Nation_.

Sokka was going to _kill_ Bumi.

“Katara!” Sokka yelled, sprinting through the forest. He was getting flashbacks to Gaipan, running like this. Fucking _Jet_.

If you’d told him before Gaipan that _Zuko_ was the Blue Spirit, Sokka would have said there was _no way_ , too.

_That’s why I’m here, Sokka. That’s why I’m on your side_.

Oh, man, Sokka was going to fucking _kill_ Bumi.

“ _Katara!_ ”

“Sokka!”

Sokka let out an incoherent whoop of relief as he saw Appa swooping down towards him. His little sister was okay, Aang was okay, Zuko was –

“Where’s Zuko?” He demanded, pulling himself into the saddle.

“He’s back at the abbey,” Katara explained. “Aang wanted to come see you first –”

“I’m sorry, Sokka!” Aang cried. “I’m _so_ sorry – I didn’t mean it and I hated doing it and I felt so guilty the whole time and I’m really sorry –”

“Aang,” Sokka interrupted. “We can talk about this later – and we’re gonna have a _talk_ , okay – but for now, I _really_ need to talk to Zuko.”

Aang seemed ready to carry on his tortured spiel for a bit longer, but he nodded and turned Appa around. When they got to the abbey, the Mother Superior couldn’t seem to run towards them fast enough.

“They took him!” She cried. “Your friend – they took him on their animal! The woman, and the Fire Nation man!”

_Oh, shit_.

Aang and Katara let out matching cries of shock – actually, Sokka was pretty sure what Katara said was _rude_ – but Sokka had to stay focused.

“Where did they go?” He demanded.

The Mother pointed east. “Eastwards. Be careful!”

“We will be,” Sokka promised.

“Sokka!” Aang yelled. “Come on, get back on – we’ve got to go!”

“Hang on a sec, Aang!” Sokka turned back to the Mother, and lowered his voice.

“Our friend,” he began, trying not to shout. “Our buddy, Lee.”

If Aang overheard – if _Katara_ overheard…

“What did they call him?” He finished.

The Mother cast an eye behind her as a sister came hurrying along. Sokka’s heart sank as he recognized Zuko’s dao swords.

_Slush_.

“Sokka!” Katara yelled.

“ _One minute!_ ” He yelled back, before turning back to the Mother. “ _What did they call Lee?_ ”

“Zuko.” She whispered. “Prince Zuko.”

Sokka wondered whether he was in the fever dream again, because his knees were made of soft rock, and he was looking up at the clouds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength’ – [Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tenzin_Gyatso,_14th_Dalai_Lama).
> 
> According to Avatar Wiki, the only airbender who had been able to unlock the secret of flying would be [Guru Laghima](https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Laghima).


	38. Chapter 38

Katara wasn’t sure what was going on with Sokka, but she and Aang had managed to haul him back into Appa’s saddle whilst he mumbled deliriously about clouds and soft rocks and princes.

“What on earth’s going on in that head of yours?” She asked him, not for the first time.

Aang ran and took a running jump up onto Appa, dropping a bundle of Zuko’s things into the saddle as he went.

“The nuns said that Zhao went east on a big mole-thingy,” he told Katara, before patting Appa. “Yip-yip, boy!”

“A mole-thingy?” Katara repeated. Even Momo seemed confused, judging by the series of chirrups, squawks and growls he let out.

“That’s what they said,” Aang confirmed. “I don’t know what that’ll look like, but they said we’d know it when we see it.” He was looking out to the north with a worried expression on his face.

Katara spotted a huge black creature running along the grasslands below them. She nudged Aang’s arm and pointed. “Something like that?”

“Hey!” Aang perked up. “That’ll do it!”

Appa let out a bellowing roar as he dropped through the air to land in front of the mole-thingy with a crash. The monster howled back, and there was a moment where both animals feinted and shifted and snarled, trying to intimidate each other.

“Give us our friend back!” Aang yelled, jumping down from Appa and levelling his staff at the animal.

“The Avatar!” The man laughed. Katara remembered his cruel face and sideburns from the Fire Temple, when he had threatened her and Sokka, and tried to kill Aang and Zuko. _Zhao_.

“Let him go,” she told him fiercely, climbing down from Appa as well. She felt a moment’s unease leaving Sokka on his own, but Zuko was strangely still and unmoving where he was slung over the beast’s back.

She felt a moment’s chill. _He couldn’t be… there’s no way…_

“I’ll take care of this,” Zhao instructed the woman, stepping down off the animal’s back. “Just keep the beast steady.”

“ _Nyla_ ,” the woman stated coolly, “Is a _shirshu_ , Zhao.”

“And I,” Zhao replied just as coldly, “Am an _admiral_ , June. And certainly more worthy of respect than _this_ one.”

He stalked over to haul Zuko off the back of the shirshu, and Katara was horrified to see him so limp and lifeless. _Was he…?_

“You shouldn’t worry about him,” Zhao told them, correctly interpreting their matching expressions. “He’s alive – although it’s hardly a life worth living,” he added, giving Zuko’s body a shake.

“What did you do to Lee?” Aang demanded.

Zhao paused, and looked from Aang to Zuko, and then back to Aang. Then, he began to laugh.

“You don’t know,” he said. His voice almost sounded _gleeful_ , and it immediately put Katara on edge. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you?”

“And _you_ have no idea how much trouble you’re going to be in if you don’t let him _go!_ ” Aang shouted.

Katara agreed. She wasn’t sure if she could beat a master firebender in a fight, but she was _not_ going to let him hurt Zuko. If she had to fight a master, she would!

“You’re one to talk!” Zhao sneered. “But then, you’re exactly why he’s here, _Avatar_.”

“What do you want?” Aang demanded. “We’ll give you what you want – just let him go!”

“What I _want_ ,” Zhao enunciated coldly, “Is to finish the job the Fire Lord started.”

Katara readied herself to bend. She had promised to protect the people she cared about. If Zhao was going to try and kill the last airbender, she would _fight_ him.

Zhao suddenly hauled Zuko up, and Katara gasped as his hand erupted into flames. Zuko’s eye widened infinitesimally, and she realized that Zuko _wasn’t_ dead, he was…

He was alive, and he was conscious, and, she realized with growing horror, Zhao was holding a fire _right in front of his face_.

“If the Avatar does not come with me,” Zhao said with a terrible smile, “I’ll burn his face down to bone.”

“Don’t do this,” Aang begged. His voice was trembling. “Don’t do this, please, I – I have friends in the Fire Nation, they’re good people –”

“Then they are _weak_ people,” Zhao hissed. “Weak, cowardly, _pathetic_. Just like you! Just like –”

He broke off and dodged to the side, sidestepping a whistling object as it flew past him.

“What was that?” He shouted, lighting his hand on fire again.

Sokka groaned, slumping over Appa’s saddle. “Thought I got’cha.”

Zhao’s eyes narrowed. “You should have stayed quiet. When I’m through with you, you won’t wake up.”

“You’re saying that,” Sokka slurred. “But what goes around…”

Zhao’s frown betrayed a flicker of confusion. “What are you –”

The boomerang thudded into the back of Zhao’s head, and Katara let out a shout of relief and joy as he collapsed to the ground in a heap. She then had to let out a sympathetic wince as Zuko toppled over as well.

“Zuko!” She started to rush towards him, but the shirshu growled at her, and she skidded to a halt.

“Let my friend go!” Aang shouted, pointing his staff at the woman. _June_ , Zhao had called her.

She shook her head. “Listen, kid, you seem pretty green, so let me tell you something. That’s not how this business _works_.”

June looked amused at the way Aang was so passionate about defending his friend, and Katara felt her hackles raise. “Let him go, or else!”

“Or else what?” She drawled. “You’ll yell at me some more? Sweetie, the way your boyfriend always used to yell at me, you two _deserve_ each other.”

Aang took a breath. “What’ll it take for you to let him go?”

June let out a laugh. “Oh, more than you can afford, little monk.”

“But not more than he can.”

Katara turned around to see Sokka hanging out of Appa’s saddle, still. He was looking a bit pale, but he had a determined expression on his face.

“We’ll double whatever Zhao paid you,” he continued. “You know he’s good for it.”

The bounty hunter seemed to consider it for a moment. “When can I expect payment?”

“When do you want it?”

June’s eyes narrowed. “Four hundred gold pieces. One week. Non-negotiable.”

_What?_

Katara couldn’t believe it. Four hundred gold pieces was more money than she’d ever seen in her life… multiplied by about a hundred!

“Done,” Sokka nodded. “How will we find you?”

“You won’t.” June hopped down off the shirshu and stalked over to Zuko. Katara tensed, but she didn’t hurt him – she just bent down and tore two cloth strips from his biceps.

“The first is to find you, so you can pay,” she informed them. “The second is to find you in case you don’t.” Her stare was really, _really_ scary. “I don’t want to have to use both.”

She let out a whistle as she leapt back onto the shirshu’s back, and it let out a roar before they started running. Katara and Aang glanced at each other before they both rushed forward and grabbed a hold of Zuko.

“It’s okay, Zuko,” Aang reassured him. “We’ve got you!”

“Aang, wait,” Katara began, but Aang had already airbent Zuko up into Appa’s saddle. She thought she heard a low _oof_ , but she wasn’t sure if it was from Zuko or Sokka.

Katara turned around, and delivered one good thumping _kick_ to Zhao’s ribs before she scrambled back onto Appa.

…

Aang was trying to talk to Sokka, but he was apparently a little busy right now. Aang knew this because Sokka had told him.

“I’m a little busy right now, Aang,” he told him, folding his arms and scowling at Zuko. Whatever the shirshu thing had poisoned him with had begun to wear off, and he was able to look confused, just like Aang was looking.

“But you’re just sitting here with Zuko,” Aang pointed out.

“Sometimes sitting here with Zuko is a full-time occupation,” Sokka muttered.

“Well…” Aang hesitated. He really wanted to say sorry to Sokka for the way he’d lied to them about the map, but Sokka had seemed really mad at him when he’d left, and even though he and Katara and come back, Sokka _still_ seemed really mad about something.

Aang felt a bit bad about letting Sokka take his anger out on Zuko, but he didn’t want Sokka to get mad at _him_ again.

“Okay,” he said instead, changing his mind. “So we’re still cool with the directions we had earlier?”

“Just keep going, Aang,” Sokka told him. He scowled at Zuko, which Aang thought was a little unfair. Zuko was paralyzed – it wasn’t _his_ fault he was slowly drooling all over Appa’s saddle. Besides, Sokka wasn’t even the one who was going to have to clean it up later – Aang was!

But Sokka was looking pretty mad, and Aang didn’t want to get in the way of that. Aang had been a little nervous when Sokka had gotten mad at him back at the Southern Water Tribe and banished him for messing around with that Fire Nation flare, and that was _before_ Aang had seen what Sokka could do with his boomerang. He’d totally brained Zhao!

Violence was never the answer, but that had been pretty cool, he had to admit. Sokka had managed to save Zuko _and_ figure out a way to get them out of there safely. Aang was a little confused as to where they were going to get four hundred gold pieces from, but he trusted Sokka and Zuko to figure it out.

“Okay,” he said, and hopped back up onto Appa's head to sit with Katara.

“What did he say?” She asked.

“We’re still heading for that Fire Nation army camp,” Aang answered. Normally, that sentence would have been super crazy for him to hear, but Zuko had assured him that this one was made up of deserters who’d left the army and set out on their own to build a new life. Apparently, defecting from the army meant that they had to keep moving from place to place so that they wouldn’t end up being found by the Fire Nation. They’d only arrived in their current spot a few months ago.

Aang had gotten pretty excited about that – they sounded a lot like nomads! It was so cool that people from the other nations were able to appreciate the nomadic way of life that Aang’s people had always lived by. He looked up at Katara again shyly. Maybe she’d learn to appreciate the freedom of Aang’s way of life, too.

Aang knew that the nomadic way of life wasn’t for everyone – he didn’t think Bato would be able to do it, not with all the stuff he’d had in his hut. He’d have to give up pretty much _all_ of them, including that raccoon headpiece. And he wouldn’t have been able to keep the animal pelts, either – that was _gross_. But Katara slept in a sleeping bag, and maybe if she was cold Aang would be able to give her that blanket Suki had given him on Kyoshi – and after the past couple of months on Appa, she might even be getting used to flying all over the place…

“Um, Aang?”

Katara was talking to him! He quickly set his attention back on her. It wasn’t too hard. Katara was really pretty. “Uh, yeah?”

“I was just saying, we’re flying quite low,” she gestured down to where Appa was flying just above the tree line. “Shouldn’t we fly a little higher, so people won’t spot us?”

“We haven’t got time for that, Katara,” Sokka’s voice came from behind them. “I don’t like it either, but now that we’re on a deadline, we can’t afford to waste time taking Appa higher or taking longer to land.”

“But what if people see us?” Aang looked out at a Fire Nation village a little while away. “If they spot Appa, they might let the Fire Nation know.” He shuddered. “And then _Zhao_ might know.”

The way Zhao had been so willing to burn Zuko… Aang hadn’t ever seen cruelty like that before. And the way he’d talked about the Air Nomads – calling them weak, cowardly, and pathetic. Monk Gyatso hadn’t been _any_ of those things!

“Zhao already came after us,” Sokka pointed out. “And he’s probably still getting over that headache I gave him. I don’t think he’s our priority right now. Right now, our priority isn’t escaping him again – it’s getting to that army camp so we can figure out what we’re going to do about that bounty hunter.”

“I don’t know, Sokka,” Katara said, glancing back at Zuko. “She said she wanted four hundred gold pieces. In a _week_. How’re we supposed to get that kind of money?”

“Zuko’s got an uncle, right? That Iroh guy?” Sokka reminded them. “And they both seemed to know Bumi pretty well. If we can get a message to Bumi, he can help pay.”

Aang had known Sokka would be able to come up with a plan!

“That was really quick thinking, Sokka,” he told the older boy. “The way you were able to think of a way to get Zuko out of there.”

“Glad you appreciate how hard it was to think of that on the fly,” Sokka muttered, giving Zuko another annoyed look. “It’s kind of hard to come up with plans when people don’t tell you stuff.”

Aang cringed. “Um, Sokka?”

“Yeah, Aang?”

“I’m…” Aang tried to be brave and own up to his faults, like Monk Pasang had always told him to. “I’m really sorry that I kept the map to your Dad a secret. I know you really care about him and I’m sorry that I kept it back because I thought you were going to leave.” He hung his head. “I’m really sorry, Sokka.”

He hoped that Sokka understood that he was really, _really_ sorry.

…

The way Aang was looking like a little kicked polar bear dog puppy, Sokka was finally starting to realize how effective that sad little lemur look was.

 _Aw, slush_ , he grumbled to himself. Now Aang and Momo were going to be able to make _him_ feel guilty about stuff, too.

“Aang, buddy…” Sokka sighed. “I wanted to see my Dad, Aang, I really did. I haven’t seen him in two years. I’m not going to lie, it really hurt when I found out that you’d hidden that map from us.”

The problem was that Aang wasn’t really the person Sokka was super mad at right now.

“But I know that we’ve got to help you reach the North Pole,” he continued. “Katara and I made you a promise; we made our _Tribe_ a promise. And you don’t break Water Tribe promises.”

“That’s what Katara said,” Aang offered.

“Katara knows,” Sokka agreed, and he shared a quick Water Tribe grin with his little sister before he turned back to Aang. “I’m still kind of mad, but I’m not mad at you. I just don’t like it when people keep stuff from me when it could be really important information, you know?”

“I know, Sokka,” Aang nodded his head a couple of times really fast. “I know.”

Sokka gave him a long look to make sure he understood. Aang fidgeted a few times, but he held his gaze. Sokka figured that was good enough.

“Keep flying on,” he told them. “We’ll probably take a day to make the camp. Then we’ve got to send a letter to Zuko’s uncle.”

It was going to be tight, he sighed to himself. If June caught up to them in the middle of a deserters’ camp, they probably wouldn’t be making a lot of friends in that camp. A group of angry firebenders was _not_ Sokka’s idea of a good time.

He made his way back to sit next to Zuko. “How’s the paralysis going?” He asked, being sure to keep his voice low.

This was going to be a _private_ conversation.

“Okay,” Zuko managed. “Still – hard. But… better.” He frowned. “Back hurts.”

“Oh, I am so sorry to hear that,” Sokka murmured in mock-sympathy, before he set his face again. “Did you want me to give you a massage, Your Royal Highness?”

Zuko’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open, but that might just have been a delayed reaction to the paralysis. “You know?”

“My buddy Bato gave me all I need to know,” Sokka said. He hadn’t been sure how to broach this topic, but he figured that just going straight in, like when he’d had to talk to Zuko about the Blue Spirit, was a safe bet. Zuko couldn’t lie to save his life; Sokka wasn’t going to give him any wriggle room.

He’d just give him enough rope to trip over and tie himself up with.

“What – he say?”

“Prince Zuko said something that pissed off the Fire Lord,” Sokka began. “He got banished, and he could only return to the Fire Nation if he captured the Avatar and brought him back with him. He’s a firebender, he’s travelling with some guy named Iroh, and he’s got a burn scar on his face.”

Sokka levelled his best _don’t bullshit me_ look at Zuko.

“You told us your family ‘supports the war’,” he reminded him. “You _didn’t_ tell us that your family is _waging_ the war.”

“I already told you –” at least the paralysis was wearing off. “Uncle and I – _don’t_.”

Wait a minute. If the paralysis was wearing off…

“Give me your word you won’t attack when you can move.”

“What?” Zuko’s mouth hung open. “Sokka, what the _blazes_ –”

“Your word,” Sokka repeated. “I want it.”

“Alright, _fine_.”

Good. Sokka could relax a little bit now. “Start talking.”

Even half-drugged on shirshu venom, Zuko could still give him an impressive unimpressed look. “About what?”

Sokka didn’t blush in an unmanly fashion. “Fine, whatever. I’ll talk. You can just answer. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“And don’t mess me about.”

“I’ve never lied to you, Sokka,” Zuko insisted. “Never lied – Aang. Or Katara.”

“I know that,” Sokka muttered. “That’s what’s pissing me off.” He cleared his throat. “Who’s in charge at this camp?”

“Master Jeong Jeong. He’s – trust him.”

“How do you know him?”

“Uncle.”

“Your Uncle Iroh?” Sokka checked. Zuko nodded. “Bato said you were on a ship with a General Iroh.”

“Retired General. Same guy. But I’m… here.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Sokka pointed out. Zuko went a little red. “Okay. You’re Prince Zuko, you’re the Fire Lord’s kid – is General Iroh a prince, too?”

“Yeah. But – not really.”

“Not really?” _That_ didn’t sound like anything Sokka could understand. “You’re not really Prince Zuko, or you’re not the Fire Lord’s kid, or your uncle’s not a prince?”

“Uncle – gave up the title,” Zuko explained. “For now. Voluntary. Mine was… taken. Banished.”

Sokka considered it. “Is that why you didn’t tell us?”

“Partly,” Zuko admitted. “Uncle made me promise.”

“Tui’s _sake_ ,” Sokka muttered. “Anything else you promised your Uncle you wouldn’t tell us?”

Okay, he could accept that he probably deserved the unimpressed look Zuko gave him _that_ time round.

“Partly – promise to Uncle. Partly – Aang’s… _Avatar_.”

Sokka knew all about making promises to his family. He could understand why Zuko had kept it. But Zuko had raised an important point. Aang _was_ the Avatar.

“That really pissed me off, when I heard it,” Sokka told him bluntly. “When Bato told me, I thought we’d left you alone with Aang.”

“What?” Zuko looked confused at that. “You guys – ice dodging _with_ Aang.”

“Oh, right, yeah,” Sokka remembered how Zuko hadn’t been there for that whole debacle with the map. “Yeah, Bato was waiting for a map to arrive with my Dad’s location, but Aang thought that Katara and I were going to just go off with Bato and ditch you guys, so he hid the map. When we found out, I got really mad and quit on you guys. But we’re back now, so –” he shrugged – “That’s the story.”

“Aang lied?” Zuko’s voice sounded disapproving. Yeah, that had been Sokka’s reaction, too.

“We’ll deal with it,” Sokka waved it off. Yeah, he hadn’t been able to see Dad, but… Bato had said Dad would understand. Sokka was where he needed to be, and that was what was important.

“When Bato told me, I thought we’d left him all alone with someone who would capture him and take him to the Fire Lord,” he continued, trying to figure it out. “But… that’s _Prince_ Zuko.” He looked Zuko in the eye. “And that’s not you, is it?”

Zuko swallowed, but kept eye contact. Sokka tried to keep his focus on the right eye. The left was… jarring.

“No,” Zuko said eventually. “Not – anymore. Not… now.”

Don’t get him wrong – Sokka still had a lot of questions. A _lot_. But that was the main one sorted.

 _We can trust him_.

“We need four hundred gold coins in less than a week,” he said. “Can we get a message to General Iroh from Jeong Jeong’s camp?”

It might have been that the venom was finally wearing off, but Zuko’s face seemed to twist into a wry smile.

“Sure,” he said eventually. “He’ll be happy to hear from him.”


	39. Chapter 39

“Remember, guys,” Sokka instructed Aang and Katara as Appa kept flying across the northern Earth Kingdom. “We’ve got to call Zuko _Lee_ – they might be deserters, but they’re still Fire Nation.”

“We _know_ , Sokka,” Katara sounded like she was getting annoyed now. “You’ve been reminding us about it all day – we get it.”

“I think it’s kind of cool!” Aang grinned, turning to look at Zuko. “Won’t this be the first time you’ve seen people from the Fire Nation in a while?”

“I only saw Zhao a couple of days ago,” Zuko pointed out.

“Oh, yeah,” Aang remembered. He looked slightly put out at that. “Well, won’t this be the first time you’ve seen people from the Fire Nation who don’t want to kill you in a while?”

Zuko blinked. He… hadn’t really thought about it like that before.

“Sure, Aang,” he settled on. “But just call me Lee anyway, just to be on the safe side. Okay?”

“Okay,” Aang agreed. “Can I still call you Hotman?”

“No,” Zuko said quickly. “No, you definitely can’t call me Hotman.”

Aang sighed. “ _Fine_.”

At least there was _one_ benefit to having to keep his identity secret, Zuko supposed.

He and Sokka had agreed not to tell the others that he was the banished former _Prince_ of the Fire Nation. Uncle had made him promise not to let it get out that Prince Zuko had joined the Avatar, but besides that – Katara _hated_ the Fire Nation, and if she were to find out that Zuko was the Fire Lord’s son… well.

She’d hit him with a frying pan for being a firebender – when Sokka and Zuko had thought about what she might do if she were to find out that Zuko was related to the Fire Lord, they’d agreed that it might not be the best time to tell her.

And it would be difficult to try and tell Aang, Zuko acknowledged, as he looked behind him. Even though he was riding up front with him on Appa’s head right now, Katara was still sitting right behind them. Since she and Sokka had come back from their aborted trip with Bato, she’d spent most of her time sat with Aang, as if to make the point that she wasn’t going anywhere without him. They were going to the North Pole, no matter what.

But Aang and Katara would be heading off to the North Pole without Zuko and Sokka.

Katara had been outraged when Sokka had told her that they would have to make their way north without them, but Sokka had been uncharacteristically serious when she’d protested.

“I made the offer to June, sis,” he’d said. “I need to be there with Zuko to make sure the deal goes through.”

“But why do we need to split up for you to do that?” Katara had shouted, looking at Zuko with a furious glare.

They’d definitely made the right decision in not telling Katara, he’d decided.

“You and Aang need to keep heading north,” Sokka had explained. “We’ve spent too long in the northern Earth Kingdom; it’s _way_ past time for us to get to the Northern Water Tribe.”

But Katara had resisted Sokka’s attempts at logical persuasion, really digging her heels in. Zuko would have been impressed at her stubbornness if it wasn’t so _infuriating_.

“What are we supposed to do about food?” Katara pointed out. “You’re the hunter, Sokka – how are we supposed to _eat?_ ”

“We can get you some supplies in Jeong Jeong’s camp,” Zuko offered. “That should give you enough to make the trip on Appa. It’s only three days – you won’t starve.”

“Three days?” Aang looked a bit nervous at that. “Uh – Appa still gets tired, guys. I don’t know if we can keep him flying for three days.”

“That’s cool,” Sokka answered dismissively. “He can float, right? Just sit him down in the water at night, and you can relax.”

Zuko had to grab onto the edge of the saddle behind them as Appa let out a resounding _roar_.

“Uh,” Aang said sheepishly. “Appa says there’s no way he’s going to sleep in freezing cold arctic waters.”

“Well, head to the Northern Air Temple, then,” Zuko said impatiently. “There’s people there who can give you supplies –”

“What?” Aang turned his head so fast Zuko felt a gust of air at the movement. “There’s people living at the Northern Air Temple?”

The monk’s face was alive with excitement, and Zuko realized his mistake.

“I’m sorry, Aang,” he said as softly as he could. “They’re not airbenders. They’re Earth Kingdom refugees. They needed a place to go when the Fire Nation attacked their home, and – well…” He swallowed. “No one was living in the temple, so…”

Zuko’s Nation had done so many awful things. They had burned so many homes to the ground, and they had left countless people without a home. But they had also left homes empty, filled with nothing but ash.

If he had ever thought that the war was the Nation’s way of bringing Agni’s light of civilization to the other nations, the heartbroken look on Aang’s face would have stripped that lie away in a heartbeat.

“They – they’re not airbenders?” He asked quietly.

“I’m sorry,” Zuko said weakly, but he knew it could never be enough. “But they – they’re happy there.”

“Of course they’d be happy there!” Aang snapped back. “ _Anyone_ would be happy there, it’s – it’s a _temple_ , you’re meant to be happy there!”

“Aang, buddy, it’s okay –” Sokka began, but Aang folded his arms and turned away.

“They – they can fly, Aang,” Zuko tried to reassure him. “They’ve built these gliders, they can fly at the temple.”

“That’s not the same thing!”

“I know, Aang,” he said hastily. “But they’re – they’re trying to honor your people.”

“By _pretending_ they’re airbenders?”

“They’re not pretending anything, Aang. They’re just trying to make a home there.”

Aang ignored him and kept his eyes on the middle distance, his jaw set.

“You can’t make people into airbenders, Aang,” Sokka said, putting a hand on Aang’s shoulder. Aang shook him off, and he sighed. “And you can’t be mad at them for not being airbenders, either,” he said in a gentler voice.

Zuko glanced at him, but Sokka gave him a helpless look back. They both turned to Katara, who shook her head.

“You two can go and check through our supplies to see how much Jeong Jeong and his camp need to give us,” she instructed them.

Zuko tried to catch Aang’s eye one more time, but Aang was still looking forward and ignoring him. Katara shifted to the side so he could climb back up into the saddle, before hoisting herself over the edge to sit with Aang.

“You sure that sending them off together is a good idea?” He asked Sokka lowly.

“No,” Sokka admitted. “But we’ve got to figure out this thing with June. And if she can track you, and Zhao knows her, then…” He sighed. “If he _does_ end up paying her and tracking us again, at least they’ll be long gone.”

“Without you.”

“I have to protect my sister,” Sokka said flatly. “This is how we do that.”

…

Aang had been so angry when Zuko had told him that people from the Earth Kingdom had taken over the Northern Air Temple, and when he had said that they had figured out a way to glide through the air like airbenders, he had been so angry that he hadn’t known what to say. He’d just turned away and sulked, because he hadn’t wanted to say anything mean and have everyone be mad at him again.

But how was he supposed to feel, when Zuko had told him about how those people had figured out how to pretend to be airbenders? It was like they were cheating! Being an airbender wasn’t just about being able to move in the air – it was about _spirit_. If you weren’t an airbender, you weren’t an airbender, simple as! You couldn’t _learn_ spirit, and you couldn’t figure out a way to _get_ spirit.

When the monks had found Samten after he’d turned out to be an airbender, they had known that he had _always_ been an airbender. He hadn’t just suddenly become an airbender one day! Aang had always thought it was so unfair to Samten that he hadn’t been taught how to airbend when he was younger, but now he was even angrier because these people were acting like they were better than Samten!

He sighed, and turned to Katara. “Do you think Sokka’s right?”

She looked a little surprised that he was asking her the question. “What do you mean, Aang?”

“About how you can’t make people into airbenders,” he explained.

“I don’t know,” she said. She seemed thoughtful. “Do you think you can learn to airbend?”

“The monks always said that you’re either an airbender or you’re not,” Aang repeated what Monk Gyatso had said. “It’s a gift from the spirits. But it’s not a gift to be used arrogantly,” he added hastily. “It’s meant to make you humble, and realize that just because you’re more fortunate than people who don’t airbend, that doesn’t mean you’re _better_ than them.”

Katara seemed to think that was a really interesting point “Did they think that being an airbender was especially fortunate? Like you were lucky to be an airbender?”

“Not really,” Aang admitted. “They never said that being an airbender was _better_ than bending any other element. But airbending is the most spiritual element, and airbenders are naturally more spiritual than people from the other nations. This really famous guru called Guru Laghima said that airbenders can see more clearly than other people, because we’re free from illusion.”

“Because air is the element of freedom,” Katara said. Aang nodded, pleased that she was starting to understand.

“That’s why airbenders need to be humble,” he explained. “Just because we understand more, that doesn’t mean we’re better than anyone else.”

“I think Sokka would agree with you there,” Katara said. “So maybe Sokka’s right.”

Aang sighed. “But if you can’t make people into airbenders, that means that those people at the temple will never be airbenders,” he lamented. “It’s really hard to think that they’re just… not bending.”

“Well, just because they’re not bending right now doesn’t mean they’re not airbenders,” Katara said. Aang was about to tell her that was _exactly_ what it meant when she carried on talking. “I mean, they could just not know how to airbend. Like I didn’t know how to waterbend.”

“But you’ve always known you were a waterbender,” Aang pointed out, confused as to what she was getting at. “You’ve _always_ known.”

“I’ve always known I was a waterbender,” Katara agreed. “But I didn’t always know _how_ to waterbend. I still don’t, really.”

“But you can do that water whip really well,” Aang reminded her.

“Thanks, Aang.” Katara smiled at him. “But I knew I was a waterbender before I knew how to control my waterbending – and that’s why I’ve been working really hard on my water whip. Because I already had that basis of being a bender. But if these people don’t know they’re airbenders, why would they try and work hard to become better at airbending?”

Aang hadn’t thought about it like that. Once Samten had come to the temple, he’d worked really had at learning how to airbend with his breath. He’d told Aang it was because he had only figured out he was an airbender because he had sneezed and blown a door off its hinges. He’d been really freaked out about it before the monks had shown up and explained everything to him.

The monks had always said that because air was such a subtle element, part of the reason it was so important to be spiritually attuned was because if someone airbent in subtle ways, you could miss it. Now that Aang thought about it, although it had sucked that Samten had had to wait so long to learn how to airbend, he might actually have been kind of lucky that he’d sneezed and discovered he was an airbender in such a dramatic way, because otherwise, he might not have _ever_ known it.

“Just because people _haven’t_ figured out that they’re airbenders,” Aang said thoughtfully, trying to figure it out. “Doesn’t mean that they haven’t ever _shown_ that they’re airbenders. They might just not have noticed that they were bending.”

Katara nodded. “I only realized that I was a waterbender because I made a whole pot of five-flavor soup fall over when I was three.”

“Really?” Aang giggled. That must have been super funny to watch.

“Really,” Katara confirmed. “But maybe if I hadn’t done that, people wouldn’t have noticed I was a waterbender for a much longer time.”

“So maybe the people at the Northern Air Temple haven’t figured out that they’re airbenders yet,” Aang perked up. That was great news! Even if they didn’t all know they were able to airbend, it might have just been that no one had taught them what to _look_ for in airbenders. Well, Aang could show them that! That was the whole point of being an airbender – helping the other nations free themselves of illusion, and helping them achieve freedom.

And really, when Aang thought about it, that would be a really great way to be the Avatar, too – to find airbenders amongst Earth Kingdom refugees. It would show the Fire Nation that they hadn’t been able to defeat the nomadic spirit, and it would help the Earth Kingdom see that the war wasn’t over.

It would be like in Hei Bai’s forest, Aang concluded happily. The forest had _looked_ like it was burned and destroyed, but Katara had explained to him how the presence of all those little acorns showed that the forest was actually going to grow back. Like the airbenders!

Katara was _really_ spiritual, Aang realized. She totally understood how the airbenders lived out their philosophy!

Feeling brave, Aang leaned over to give her a hug around her shoulders. She made a small noise, but gave him a hug back.

“That was a nice surprise,” she said once he’d leaned back, giving him a smile. “Feeling better, then?”

Aang blushed. “Yeah. What you said really helped.”

“I’m glad,” Katara said. Aang was glad too. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. They smiled at each other for a bit, and it was really nice.

Then Sokka interrupted and told them that he could see the camp up ahead, and Aang had to get back to driving. He didn’t want to crash Appa down in the middle of the deserters’ camp. That would be kind of awkward and embarrassing.

…

Katara was glad to see that Aang seemed to be feeling a little better by the time they arrived at the deserters’ camp. Zuko told Aang to settle Appa down by the riverbank, and she was secretly relieved that she’d be close to water. Even though Sokka and Zuko had said they could trust Jeong Jeong and his camp, they were still Fire Nation.

So she was a little taken aback when a couple of soldiers turned up and their leader seemed to be a little… odd.

“My name’s Chey,” he introduced himself, waving with a lazy grin. “But, like – what’s a name, right? It’s, like, your ultimate _identity_.”

Sokka must have swallowed a fly or something, because he started coughing.

“Shut up,” Zuko hissed, landing a hefty thud on his back.

“But then, we _need_ identity,” Chen continued. “Otherwise, we’re all, like, cogs in the machine. But that’s the war for you. My man Jeong Jeong? He said _no_ to the war. He said no to the madness.”

“That’s actually who we’re here to see,” Katara explained. “General Jeong Jeong?”

“Yeah,” Chey agreed. “That’s my guy – Jeong Jeong, the Deserter. He was a Fire Nation general, or wait.” He frowned. “Was he an admiral?”

“He was very highly ranked,” Sokka summarized impatiently. “We get it. Can you go get him?”

Chey scratched his head. “Well, I wouldn’t say I _get_ him. Like, he and I? Different people, man. Identities, and all that.”

“Speaking of identities,” Aang jumped in. “I’m Aang. I’m the Avatar! And this is Katara, and Sokka, and that’s Lee. They’re my friends.”

“Nice to meet you,” Katara smiled at the soldiers. She was trying to be friendly, but this guy Chey didn’t seem to get that she was feeling kind of nervous.

“Yeah, my man Jeong Jeong’s the first person ever to leave the army and live. I'm the second, but you don't get to be a legend for that. Like I said –” he spread his arms – “Two different people. I can’t _get_ Jeong Jeong, ‘cause he was first. How do you even _get_ that?”

“Is there anyone else we can talk to?” Zuko asked flatly. “Like – _anyone?_ ”

“First Bumi, now this dude,” Sokka agreed. “Next up, Jeong Jeong’s going to be straight-up kooky.”

Chey seemed offended at that. “Hey, man – Jeong Jeong's a firebending _genius_. Some say he's mad – but he's not! He's _enlightened_.”

“Yeah, and we’ve gotta go see him,” Sokka insisted, stepping forward. “Come on, guys – if he’s not coming to us, then we’re going to him.”

“No one’s going to see the Master,” one of the soldiers moved to stand beside Chey.

Zuko sighed. “Go and tell him that the Avatar’s here with Lee.”

“Lee the flower boy,” Sokka added.

“Fuck _off_ , Sokka!”

Katara told herself that she couldn’t hit Zuko. They had to present a united front when they were facing the Fire Nation – even if he and Sokka _were_ making that a bit difficult.

“Chey,” the soldier said. “Go tell the Admiral that the Avatar’s here with Lee and two Water Tribe kids.”

“Hey!” Katara protested.

“We’re not kids,” Sokka added.

The soldier raised her eyes as Chey set off at a jog. “How old are you?”

Sokka paused before huffing and looking down at his feet. “Fifteen.”

The second soldier shook his head. “Even the Nation would turn you down for service.”

“Not for long,” the first disagreed. “I heard rumors that the recruiting age is getting lowered.”

“You’re messing!” He exclaimed. “Lowered to _what?_ ”

“I’m not messing with you, Qin Lee,” she said stubbornly. “And they were saying thirteen.”

“ _Thirteen?_ ” Katara repeated in disbelief. “They want Fire Nation kids to join the army at _thirteen?_ ”

“Sure,” she shrugged. “The way they were talking, seems the argument is that if the Prince can do an Agni Kai at thirteen, there’s no reason why kids can’t get –”

“You said that guy’s name was Qin Lee,” Zuko interrupted. “And that guy that went off was Chey. Who’re you?”

The Fire Nation woman gave him a very offended look. “I’m Corporal Deokhye.”

Zuko seemed to recognize the name. “Didn’t you serve under the Dragon of the West?”

“In Tanggu,” Deokhye confirmed. “But I left the army with Jeong Jeong nearly three years ago.”

Katara could see Chey returning at a quicker jog this time.

“Jeong Jeong will see the Avatar now,” he greeted them with a much more direct air this time. “He wants to talk with him about what he’s doing here. I think he asked ‘Does the Avatar not fear the flames of war?’, or something.”

Aang looked a bit nervous at that, but Katara set a reassuring hand on his arm.

“It’ll be okay,” she told him firmly. “We’re not going to let them hurt you.”

“Jeong Jeong’s all light and no heat,” Zuko said quietly. “He’ll be a bit rough, but he won’t hurt you, Aang. Don’t be afraid.”

That seemed to make Aang feel a little better, and he nodded and moved forward after Chey. “Let’s go.”

Chey led them along the river up to Jeong Jeong’s camp. There were a couple of lean-tos and a few tents, and one larger hut with a metal roof. Chey pointed the way for Aang, and Katara and the others watched as he walked into the tent.

“How do you know Jeong Jeong?” Katara asked Zuko quietly. She didn’t want to be overheard by the guards.

“My Uncle knows him,” Zuko answered in an equally low voice. “I think they fought together in Fan Hong.”

“Your Uncle was in the Fire Nation army?” She turned to look at him in surprise. She had sat down and drank tea and played Pai Sho with Iroh, and he’d encouraged her to call him Uncle. He hadn’t seemed like a _soldier_.

“A long time ago,” Zuko confirmed. “He was – he’s changed. That’s not who he is anymore.”

Katara was unconvinced, but she was distracted by a sudden light coming from inside the hut Aang had gone into. It flashed through the entrance, and she was about to run in and make sure Aang was okay when Sokka put a hand on her shoulder.

“Trust me, sis,” he advised her. “You do _not_ want to get involved with Avatar stuff. The Spirit World _sucks_.”

“It’s not firebending,” Zuko offered reassuringly. “Whatever’s happening, Aang’s doing it. Jeong Jeong hasn’t hurt him.”

Katara _wasn’t_ convinced, and she hated having to sit there and wait. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when Aang came out of the hut looking relieved.

“Everything okay?” Sokka asked before she got the chance.

“Everything’s great!” Aang nodded, before turning to Zuko. “He wanted to talk to you, by the way.”

“Of course he did,” Zuko muttered, getting to his feet. “I’ll meet you for dinner, if we don’t have to leave before then.”

“Okay,” Aang agreed. “We should be okay to stay for dinner. Jeong Jeong said we could stay here whilst he taught me firebending!”

Zuko missed his step onto the bridge to the hut and almost fell into the river.

“Firebending?” Sokka squawked. “You’re learning _firebending_ now?”

“Uh-huh,” Aang confirmed. “It’s closer than the North Pole, right?”

Katara had to agree. The North Pole seemed so far away to her right now.


	40. Chapter 40

“You’re learning firebending now?” Sokka asked, looking at Aang like he’d just told them he was learning to bend something completely ridiculous that Sokka couldn’t ever imagine anyone bending.

Aang couldn’t quite see how him learning firebending was such a strange concept, because firebending was actually a pretty common bending art. And if he learnt firebending whilst he was here at the camp, then that was just one step closer to being able to defeat the Fire Lord and end the war, right?

“Uh-huh,” he nodded. “It’s closer than the North Pole, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Sokka said, still apparently struggling with the fact that Aang was learning firebending now. “But – _firebending?_ ”

“Yeah,” Aang decided to elaborate. “You know, bending the fire element?”

“I know what firebending is!”

“I think what Sokka’s trying to say is that we’re just a little surprised you’d choose to learn firebending now,” Katara intervened, giving Sokka a concerned look. Aang was getting a little concerned too; Sokka’s face didn’t usually turn that shade of purple.

“What’s so weird about me learning firebending?” He asked, feeling a bit defensive. “I’m the Avatar – I kind of _have_ to learn firebending at some point!”

“We know that, Aang,” Katara assured him. “But I always thought – well, we always thought,” she corrected herself, “That you’d have to learn the elements in order?”

“Yeah!” Sokka seemed to have recovered, and his face was back to its normal dark hues, but he’d now swapped his usual smiling blue eyes for a pair of scowling blue eyes. “It goes air, water, earth, and then fire,” he ticked them off on his fingers. “Not air-whatever-you-want!”

“But why can’t I just do it backwards?” Aang pointed out.

“Backwards?” Katara asked confusedly.

“Yeah!” Aang held up his own fingers. “Instead of going air, water, earth, and then fire, why can’t I just go air, fire, earth, water?”

Aang couldn’t think of any reason why he couldn’t do that, but Katara and Sokka were looking at him like he’d just suggested he wanted to take Sokka’s club and go kill a load of otter penguins.

“Tell me you’re joking,” Sokka said eventually in a strangled voice. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“What?” Aang laughed a little nervously. “What’s so bad about that idea? We’re already in the Earth Kingdom, so I’m pretty sure we’d be able to find a master to teach me earthbending –”

“ _We’re not here to learn earthbending!_ ” Sokka yelled, and Aang jumped up onto his feet.

Sokka was _really_ mad at him!

But why was Sokka so mad? Aang had already apologized for hiding the map to his Dad, and Sokka had said he’d forgiven him. So what had he done wrong this time?

“The _only_ reason we’re here is to get to the North Pole!” Sokka shouted.

“Sokka,” Katara tugged on his sleeve as she glanced around. “Sokka, come on, people are watching –”

“No!” Sokka yanked his sleeve away from Katara and turned to her with an annoyed look on his face. “Katara, I didn’t come all this way so you could _not_ learn waterbending!”

Oh, Aang got it now. Sokka was annoyed because the reason he and Katara had come all this way to the northern Earth Kingdom was so that Katara could go to the North Pole and learn waterbending. He thought Aang was going to keep them here in Jeong Jeong’s camp for ages whilst he learnt firebending and earthbending, and Katara would have to wait forever to learn to waterbend at the North Pole.

“No, Sokka!” He shook his head quickly. “No, it’s not like that at all! We’re not going to stick around here forever – I don’t even have to learn earthbending here, if we don’t want to!”

“I don’t want you learning firebending here, Aang!” Sokka let out an angry noise and sat back down with his knees hunched up to his ears. “I don’t want any more delays!”

“Sokka,” Katara tried to talk to him again. “It’s _okay_. Aang’s the Avatar – you know that it’s more important that he learns firebending than I learn to waterbend.”

Katara had a sad look on her face as she said that, though, which Aang felt a little guilty about. But it wasn’t not like he’d _meant_ for Avatar Roku to appear when he was talking with Master Jeong Jeong and suddenly convince the old firebender to teach him! He’d just been talking with Master Jeong Jeong about how he was looking for a waterbending master at the North Pole, and then he’d asked if Master Jeong Jeong would mind teaching him firebending.

Aang had meant it like _once I’m done learning waterbending at the North Pole_ , but Master Jeong Jeong must have thought he meant _can you teach me right now and make me a master in the next five minutes_. So then he’d told Aang he was a fool for seeking his own destruction, and Aang had gotten kind of annoyed at that. But the next thing he knew, Avatar Roku was appearing in a spirit vision and telling Master Jeong Jeong to teach Aang firebending, and Master Jeong Jeong was saying _I will teach you_.

“It’s the Avatar’s destiny to master all four elements and defeat the Fire Lord,” Katara was saying to Sokka, although he still didn’t look happy about it. “If Master Jeong Jeong can help Aang with that, we need to stay here whilst Aang learns firebending from him.”

Whenever Aang had imagined himself learning firebending, he’d imagined learning from someone a lot like Avatar Roku. They’d have long, fancy robes, and a neatly-trimmed beard, and they’d sound educated and refined. Master Jeong Jeong didn’t seem anything like the firebending teacher he would have imagined himself having, but Aang figured there had to be a reason why Avatar Roku would convince Master Jeong Jeong to teach him.

“Thanks, Katara,” he said, trying to give her a smile that showed her just how grateful he was that she wasn’t mad at him, and she understood why he needed to be here.

She gave him a nice smile in return. “Besides, whilst you and Zuko are off dealing with that June lady, we’ll be safe here until you get back.”

Sokka looked even unhappier at that, which Aang figured was because he didn’t want Katara to be staying here when they could be going to the North Pole.

“Or Master Jeong Jeong could just teach me the basics?” He offered hopefully, thinking of Katara’s waterbending lessons. “And we could go to the North Pole to learn waterbending, and I could keep practicing the basics with Zuko in the meantime?”

Aang really hated it when people fought, and he _especially_ hated it when Katara and Sokka were mad at him. If he could reassure them that Katara wouldn’t be stuck here at Jeong Jeong’s camp for ages whilst he learned firebending, he figured that might be a good way to reassure them that things weren’t as bad as they might have seemed.

…

The inside of the hut was as dark as Zuko would have expected from Jeong Jeong, but it didn’t make it any more exciting. Jeong Jeong watched him as he entered, and he bowed to his elder as honor dictated.

“It’s good to see you well, Master.”

“It is not so good to see you, boy,” Jeong Jeong replied without preamble, “But if I must, I am pleased to see you well, also. Why is the Avatar here?”

“We needed to get Aang away from Zhao, and I need to contact my Uncle,” Zuko answered, feeling a little put out at Jeong Jeong’s distinct lack of welcome. “Why are you teaching him firebending?”

“Though the boy is untrained, he _is_ the Spirit Bridge,” Jeong Jeong replied grimly. “We must serve him.”

“We’re serving him by getting him to the North Pole,” Zuko argued. “He needs to learn _waterbending_ next. That’s how the Avatar Cycle works!”

“Foolish boy!” Jeong Jeong shook his head. “Though your Uncle has taught you well, you repeat his lessons without understanding. Avatar Roku has demanded I train the boy; would you have me go against the spirits?”

“Avatar Roku?” Zuko repeated faintly. Uncle had said that the Avatar could access his past lives, and Roku _had_ appeared at the Fire Temple – but Zuko wouldn’t have thought that the Fire Avatar would have pushed the boundaries of the Cycle like that.

But the world was so out of balance, maybe the Avatar had seen no choice but to live in a little imbalance of their own.

“You see our difficulty,” Jeong Jeong agreed sourly. “But whilst the Avatar’s training presents an obstacle, it seems that you have presented us with a far greater problem.”

Zuko scowled. “I didn’t _mean_ to get involved in Gaipan, okay –”

“An inconvenient episode,” Jeong Jeong interrupted, “But I was not speaking of this. I am speaking of how you have somehow managed to implicate the Blue Spirit in your dealings with the Avatar, and of how you have apparently involved King Bumi and the Grand Lotus in _ransom_ negotiations.”

Zuko winced. Okay, yeah, that wasn’t his greatest move. But, in his defense, Sokka had kind of done that for him.

“Master,” he began, “I haven’t compromised the Order.”

“By some miracle,” Jeong Jeong muttered. “The boy must be as foolish as you.”

Zuko frowned. “Do you mean the Avatar, or Sokka?”

“That depends entirely on what the Water Tribe boy knows.”

Zuko cringed, and prepared himself for the worst. “Uh – well, he kind of knows that I’m Prince Zuko?”

Master Jeong Jeong was a firebender who prided himself on his control, but the candle fires still shot a good two feet into the air.

Zuko kept very still and tried not to yell and bolt out of the hut.

Jeong Jeong had closed his eyes and was apparently going through one of Uncle’s favored sets for relaxing meditative breathing when Zuko’s fingers stopped trembling.

“Your Uncle,” Jeong Jeong began, but then he stopped.

Zuko waited.

Jeong Jeong sighed, and pinched his brow. “Master Iroh is a respected military strategist and one of the most brilliant tactical minds of our time,” he began.

“I’m grateful for my Uncle’s guidance, Master.”

“It staggers me that such a teacher can have such a student,” Jeong Jeong stated, and yeah, Zuko was pretty sure that was _not_ a compliment.

“The Avatar is safe,” he said stubbornly, trying to keep his temper in check. “I haven’t screwed up so badly that we’ve lost anything.” He pointed at Jeong Jeong. “If you hadn’t agreed to teach him firebending, he could already be on his way to the North Pole by now!”

The candles flickered.

“Be careful, boy,” Jeong Jeong warned him. “The Grand Lotus may have been satisfied with your progress under my tutelage, but you were still my student. You owe me your respect.”

There was that word again. _Respect_.

With an effort, Zuko brought his temper under control. “I’m sorry, Master.”

“As am I, Prince Zuko,” Jeong Jeong conceded. “For Avatar Roku to adjudge that the balance must be negotiated in such a way is… _inconvenient_. But as we said in Fan Hong: regroup, refocus, return. We must adapt our plans.”

Water was the element of change, Zuko remembered. _Adaptation_. It seemed a bit of a joke that they had to change their plans so Aang could _not_ learn waterbending for a while longer.

“Where’s my Uncle?” Zuko asked. “Can we send him a message?”

“The _Wani_ is moored two miles north of here,” Jeong Jeong answered. “Master Iroh had a sense that you would come to us, and believed it would be a pleasant surprise for you.”

 _Of course he had_ , Zuko reflected. _Fantastic_. Uncle was going to be unbearable.

“I did not believe that you would be foolish enough to bring the Avatar here,” Jeong Jeong continued. “It would have been very suspicious for an Earth Kingdom boy to know a deserter. It was a much more unpleasant surprise to hear of your arrival, Master _Lee_.”

Zuko groaned. “We need four hundred gold coins, and we’ve got five days.”

“Then you should hope that the Grand Lotus has not been on any more extravagant shopping trips,” Jeong Jeong replied. “From what the Avatar has said, the Water Tribe boy placed a great deal of trust in your Uncle’s purse strings.”

“I don’t know if Sokka’s figured out that Uncle doesn’t have access to the Palace treasury on demand.”

“What do you mean?” Jeong Jeong asked confusedly. “Surely you have explained this to him, when you spoke to him about your being the Prince?”

“He kind of figured it out on his own,” Zuko admitted. “We haven’t been able to talk about it – we didn’t want Aang and Katara to find out.”

Jeong Jeong’s nostrils flared. _Control_ , Zuko reminded himself. _Firebending comes from the breath_.

“Then at least you have not yet killed the bull by straightening its horns,” Jeong Jeong said eventually. “You are certain he will not tell the Avatar?”

“I don’t think we’ll have time,” Zuko confessed. “We were going to leave as soon as possible. We have to get to Uncle and get the money.”

“Then we must hurry,” Jeong Jeong stated decisively, standing to his feet. Zuko scrambled up after him as he strode out of the tent.

“Chey!” Jeong Jeong called.

The guy who had come to meet them turned around. “Yeah? I mean, uh – yes, Master Jeong Jeong?”

“Ready two ostrich-horses for Master Lee and Master Sokka.”

Chey snapped a surprisingly sharp salute. “Yes, sir!”

“Lee?” Sokka stood up from where he, Katara and Aang had been talking. “We got a plan?”

“A ship is moored two miles north of here,” Jeong Jeong explained. “Master Iroh is aboard. He will be able to assist you. Keep in touch with us, and we will inform you of the Avatar’s progress.”

“So you guys are leaving?” Aang surmised, turning to face Zuko.

He glanced at Sokka, who nodded tensely.

“Yeah,” he said. “We are.”

…

Sokka and Zuko were travelling light, so it didn’t take them long to finish packing. They each had a couple of bags with some supplies, and an extra bag that Zuko had insisted on packing full of teas and a Pai Sho set.

“It’s not for me,” he’d said defensively when Sokka had pointed it out. “It’s for Uncle.”

 _Whatever_.

It kind of sucked that Sokka hadn’t been able to see his Dad, but Zuko was able to reunite with his Uncle. But that was part of being a leader, Sokka supposed: having to make the hard decisions. And having to leave his sister behind was definitely the hardest part.

“I don’t think you’ll be staying for too long,” he told her, glancing behind her to where Zuko and Aang were talking. “Zuko’s been saying a lot of good stuff about Jeong Jeong, so you and Aang will be safe here – but I think he knows that you’ve got to go to the North Pole soon enough.”

“Do you mean Jeong Jeong or Aang?” Katara asked, but she was standing a little stiffly.

Sokka sighed, and drew his little sister in for a hug. She resisted for a moment, but sighed and hugged him back just as tightly.

“It doesn’t matter,” she muttered into his shoulder. “You’re still _going_.”

“You know we’ve got to, Seal Pup.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t fucking _hate_ it.”

“Aw, hey now,” he leaned back to flick at her hair loopies. “Don’t be like that.”

“Sorry,” she mumbled, looking a bit abashed. “Not around Aang.”

“Well, I probably wouldn’t be mad about that,” Sokka conceded, giving another look behind Katara. Aang was holding a leaf whilst Zuko gestured at it. “I kind of wanted to swear at him earlier.”

He remembered how excited his little sister had been to get to the North Pole, and how much she’d improved in her waterbending since they left the Southern Tribe. When Aang had said that they weren’t going straight on to the North Pole, the look on Katara’s face had made him want to punch that kid in the face.

“He’s the Avatar,” Katara sighed. “It can’t be helped.”

“We were going to the North Pole, though,” Sokka argued. “And even if he still wanted to learn firebending up there, Zuko could have taught him!”

“It’s _fine_ , Sokka.” Katara shook her head. “Just make sure you get June the money, okay?”

Zuko joined them, and glanced at Sokka. “Ready?”

He sighed, and gave Katara another hug. “We’ll be okay. I promise.”

Her voice was muffled by his shirt. “Water Tribe promise?”

“Water Tribe promise,” he repeated solemnly. “See you at the North Pole.”

“You too.” She bit her lip. “And – come back.”

“We will,” Sokka said. “Water Tribe promise.”

Katara nodded, and looked at Zuko. Sokka got a little nervous about how that one was going to go, but she just took a deep breath.

“Make sure he’s okay,” she told him simply. “And… Aang needs you, too.”

“We’ll be fine,” Zuko promised. “Just – keep practicing.”

“I will.”

Neither of them seemed to know what to say, so Sokka just shrugged and raised his voice. “Hey, Aang?”

The kid hurried over to them. “Yeah?”

“We’re about to head off,” Zuko explained. “So – yeah.”

“Oh.” Aang glanced from Zuko to Sokka. “You’re not staying for dinner?”

“Jeong Jeong’s kicking us out,” Sokka replied.

“He seems kind of strict,” Katara worried. “Are you sure you want to stay here, Aang?”

Aang nodded. However disappointed Katara was, she was nice enough not to complain, so Sokka tried to follow her lead.

“If Avatar Roku thinks I should learn firebending here, that’s what I should do,” he explained, before turning back to the boys. “Besides, this way, I’ll be able to do something cool _and_ deadly!” He grinned at Sokka.

“That’s not a good attitude, Aang,” Zuko interjected. “Firebending’s not supposed to be _cool_ –”

“Okay, Hotman, I know,” Aang said unconcernedly. “You’re all about _serious_ , firebending isn’t _fun_ –”

“ _Aang_ ,” Zuko cut in, and _whew_ was that a grumpy voice. “If you’re serious about learning firebending from Jeong Jeong, you need to _focus_. Don’t mess about with fire, or someone could end up getting hurt.”

There was an awkward pause as everyone avoided looking at his big burn scar.

“Okay, Zuko,” Aang finally said. “I’ll be serious, and I’ll focus.”

“You want to give him a Water Tribe promise?” Sokka asked. “Seeing as how you’re an honorary member?”

Aang shook his head. “Zuko’s not Water Tribe. But I’ll give my word,” he offered instead. “That’s a big deal in the Fire Nation, right?”

“Right,” Zuko agreed.

Aang cleared his throat. “I give my word that I won’t mess about with my firebending. Airbender’s honor.”

Sokka remembered Aang making a similar promise in Omashu. He’d ended up trapped in rock candy. Not even _soft_ rock candy.

“Look, Aang, if you’re just gonna say _airbender’s honor_ –” he began, but Jeong Jeong’s voice cut them off.

“Master Lee! For one so impatient, you are slow to depart!”

“Quick to anger, though,” Sokka couldn’t help pointing out.

“Fuck off,” Zuko muttered, but he hoisted his bag up onto his shoulder. “He’s got a point, though – let’s go.”

Sokka grabbed his own bag and took one last look at his baby sister. “See you at the Pole,” he offered.

“See you at the Pole,” she replied.

Sokka didn’t really know what else to say, so he saddled up his ostrich-horse and set off behind Zuko. They rode out of the camp in silence, and he made it about… maybe a mile through the forest before he cracked.

“Prince of the Fire Nation, huh?”

The way Zuko’s shoulders slumped, he must have been _waiting_ for it. Too right, he should have been waiting for it. There was no way Sokka was going to let him get away with not sharing this one.

“It’s a really long story.”

“Well, we’ve got five whole days for you to tell it, buddy,” Sokka pointed out, nudging his ostrich-horse with his knees to make it speed up so he was riding side-by-side with Zuko. “If it’s as long as you’re saying it is, if you start it now, you might be able to finish it before that June lady shows up.”

“Well, there’s not that much to tell,” Zuko mumbled. “I was next in line to the throne, and, uh, then I got banished, and then I joined you guys, and now we’re here.”

Sokka was almost impressed by the audacity of beginning with _It’s a really long story_ and then condensing it so radically.

“I mean, you’ve definitely given me the major events,” he agreed. “How about the extended commentary?”

Zuko sighed. “If you want someone to talk to you for ages, ask my Uncle.”

“Trust me, buddy, I’ve got a couple of questions for your Uncle as well.” Sokka promised him. It wasn’t quite a Water Tribe promise, but it was close enough.

“Me too,” Zuko said.

“Yeah?” Sokka was a bit surprised at that. “Like what?”

Zuko scowled. “Why he let _Bumi_ do the talking in Omashu.”

And, yeah, Sokka kind of wanted to know the answer to that one, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘To kill a bull by straightening its horns’ is a Japanese proverb that speaks of how the actions you take in trying to address a problem can sometimes cause more harm than the problem itself. Jeong Jeong’s basically damning Zuko with faint praise by saying that although his foolishness has caused them several problems, revealing who he is to Aang and Katara would cause a whole lot more.
> 
> I wrote about the first time Zuko met Jeong Jeong in [Chapter Three](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29029698/chapters/71346951) of my prequel fic, 'The Blue Spirit: Year One'.


	41. Chapter 41

As Sokka dismounted his ostrich-horse, he tried very hard not to feel overawed by the size of the ship.

But that thing was _huge_.

“You lived on that thing for two years?” He asked, trying to double-check and make sure.

“Home, sweet home,” Zuko confirmed sardonically. “Piece of junk,” he added lowly.

“Piece of junk?” Sokka repeated disbelievingly. “Have you _seen_ that thing?”

“The _Wani_ ’s been out of service for about twenty years,” Zuko replied, grabbing his bags and leading his ostrich-horse over to the ship. “Some of the new battleships are twice this size.”

Sokka tried very hard not to think about how his Dad had been going up against those battleships for the past two years. _Dad was fine_ , he reminded himself. Bato had gone off to meet him, and he’d been doing great. The only thing Bato had felt the need to criticize was Dad’s sense of humor, and that was just because Bato was jealous.

The short old guy from Omashu was standing at the top of the boarding ramp and waiting for them as they approached, alongside a taller man with gray hair and sideburns.

“Nephew,” he greeted Zuko. “This is an unexpected surprise.”

Zuko sighed. “Hi, Uncle. Nice to see you, too.” He nodded at the other man. “Jee.”

Jee gave a deep bow and made a weird gesture with one clenched fist and one upright hand. “Sir.”

He gave Sokka a glance as well, and he made sure to stand up tall and puff his chest out.

“Master Sokka,” the old guy stepped forward. “My name is Iroh. Whilst I had the pleasure of making your sister’s acquaintance in Omashu, I am sorry that our introductions have taken so long to be made.”

“Oh,” Sokka didn’t know whether to bow or nod his head or whatever, so he decided to play it safe and extend his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

To his surprise, Iroh clasped his forearm in the manner of the Southern Water Tribe. That was interesting.

“We’re going to be here for at least a week, Jee,” Zuko said to the other guy. “Can we have a cabin made up for Sokka?”

“Sir.” Jee gave a stiff nod, and marched off to tend to the ostrich-horses in a purposeful manner.

“Lieutenant Jee is a very capable officer, Master Sokka,” Iroh said pleasantly. “He is also a rather accomplished singer, and a talented pipa player.”

“Uh,” Sokka wasn’t really sure what a _pipa_ is, and he didn’t really do singing. “That’s cool?”

“I expect that he will be performing a rendition of ‘Four Seasons’ tonight,” Iroh carried on. “Is that perhaps why you have joined us, Nephew?”

Zuko muttered something under his breath before shaking his head. “I’m not here for music night, Uncle.”

“You guys have music night?” Sokka asked.

Zuko looked like he was about to come out with that time-honored and highly effective comeback _fuck off, Sokka_ , but Iroh beat him to it.

“My nephew boasts a wonderfully sensitive touch when it comes to the tsungi horn, Master Sokka.” He gestured for them to follow him, and they set off. “Do you play any instruments, yourself?”

“No,” Sokka admitted. “But I wouldn’t mind hearing Zuko do a little performance tonight.”

“I just said I wasn’t going to,” Zuko interjected grumpily. “Besides – look, Uncle, we’re kind of in the middle of something here. Is there somewhere we can talk?”

“Of course, Nephew,” Iroh said. “Would you prefer to retire to your chambers?”

“The bridge will be fine,” Zuko mumbled.

“Chambers?” Sokka whispered as Iroh led them through a dimly-lit corridor. “You’ve got _chambers?_ ”

“It’s just a word,” Zuko muttered back. “Uncle likes to pretend this floating piece of shit’s got ‘character’.”

“Good evening, Ensign Takahashi,” Iroh greeted someone up ahead. “How are you today?”

“Doing very well, Master Iroh,” a woman replied. She had dark hair tied back in a severe bun, and she was wearing a dark sleeveless shirt. Sokka was reminded weirdly of Suki, for some reason. It was probably the biceps.

“May I introduce Master Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe?” Iroh stepped aside, but he was a pretty… _wide_ guy, so it didn’t really accomplish much. And, besides, it was a pretty dark corridor, so Sokka wasn’t sure why the introductions couldn’t wait for somewhere lighter.

Takahashi nodded at him, though. “Nice to meet you. Is that Zuko?”

“It is indeed!” Iroh seemed very happy to provide this affirmation. “My nephew has returned, and he has brought a friend along, too.”

“I’m pretty sure your nephew can speak for himself, Master Iroh,” Takahashi said. “Unless His Highness has lost his voice from shouting in the past two months?”

Sokka _liked_ Takahashi.

Master Iroh coughed. “Ensign – Master Sokka is one of the Avatar’s –”

“It’s fine, Uncle,” Zuko sighed. “Sokka knows… uh, pretty much everything, actually. Hi, Ensign Takahashi.”

Takahashi laughed. “Seriously? I gave you your first drink, Zuko. _And_ your first hangover. You’re still gonna call me by rank?”

“I’m pretty sure you’re still on duty,” Zuko defended himself. He seemed extremely uncomfortable with the situation. Sokka was having a great time.

“What happened when you got Zuko drunk for the first time?” He asked eagerly.

Takahashi chuckled. “I’ll tell you if he keeps being so uptight.”

Zuko groaned, and hung his head.

“Hey, Taki,” he said in a resigned voice. “How’s it going?”

Takahashi smirked. “There he is.”

Oh, man, just _wait_ until Aang heard about this. Sokka couldn’t hold in a snort of laughter. _Taki_ , honestly.

“My nephew, Master Sokka, and I are about to head to the bridge, Miss Takahashi,” Iroh informed her. “Would you care to join us?”

“Please say yes,” Sokka added. “I wanna see if Zuko’s got any nicknames of his own.”

“Sokka, I swear to Agni –”

“Thanks, but I _am_ actually on duty,” Takahashi replied. “Sorry, sir. I’ll leave you to it, but I can have some tea sent up?”

“Tea would be excellent!” Iroh clapped his hands. “Let’s see – _shōgayu_ for you, Nephew, of course; some jasmine for myself… and for you, Master Sokka?”

“Oh.” Sokka had never been a big tea drinker. “Um… jasmine’s cool?”

From the way Iroh looked back at him, even in the darkened corridor, Sokka could see that he was in for an education in the finer things of tea over the next couple of days.

“A pot of jasmine, then,” Iroh decided. “If you would be so kind, Ensign.”

Takahashi shrugged, but stepped away smartly down a side corridor. Sokka and Zuko followed Iroh through a few more hallways and a stairway until they arrived at their destination.

“Make yourself comfortable, Master Sokka,” Iroh invited him, sitting down at a table bolted down to the floor. “How have your travels been, since we parted ways in Omashu?”

Sokka looked at Zuko, who was sitting down and brushing his hair back from his face, seemingly determined to stay out of the conversation. This was probably his payback for taking the piss earlier.

Sokka thought about how their travels had been since they’d left Omashu. Katara had hit Zuko in the face with a frying pan, staged a prison break, and almost destroyed a town. Aang had made them go to the Fire Nation and gotten captured at a Fire Nation military base. Zuko had snuck _into_ said military base and then ended up getting kidnapped by a bounty hunter. And Sokka had been taken on an impromptu journey to the Spirit World and had been made to eat a frog.

“We’ve had a great time!” He said brightly, in the most upbeat voice he could manage.

…

Jeong Jeong had woken Aang up at dawn to go traipse up a hill, and Aang had complained loudly enough to wake Katara up, so her day hadn’t _quite_ gotten off to the best start. At least her sleeping bag was nice and warm, she thought to herself, as she listened to Aang grumble and mutter as he followed Jeong Jeong out of the camp.

She’d tried to get back to sleep, but now that she was up, she couldn’t. When Sokka and Zuko had still been with them, she’d usually woken up a respectable while after dawn, at a sensible time of the day, and then she’d usually been kept awake by Sokka’s snoring, so there was no chance of going back to sleep. Zuko would already have been up for a while because of his meditations, so he would have made breakfast. Occasionally, when Sokka’s snoring was _especially_ bad, she’d join him and they’d sit down with candles and a few bowls of water, and try and connect to their elements.

Katara had been making real improvements – she’d found that she could bend sitting down, now. It had been so difficult at first, because waterbending was a bending art that required motion and fluidity, and she had struggled with the stillness. But when she had tried to concentrate her bending in her torso and arms and hands, she had been able to bend the hot water in the bowl – now, after a few weeks’ practicing, she could bend sitting down or standing still whilst her feet were rooted to the ground.

When she’d talked to Zuko about this, he’d picked up on her use of the word _root_ , and explained that he needed a strong root and a stable stance in order to firebend, because fire came from the breath. If his body was unbalanced, his breathing would be unbalanced, he’d explained, but because fire was an active element, he needed to release his fire in fast, powerful movements.

Katara wasn’t sure about how that related to her waterbending – even if she kept her feet grounded, she found that her bending was more responsive when she used unhurried, fluid movements. She needed to dedicate her whole body to some bending movements, but when she did, they were invariably more powerful, more accurate, and more precise than when she didn’t. Even a small detail like the way she extended the _feel_ of the sweep of her arm into her fingertips could affect the way the water moved.

She tried to experiment by the river, using her hands and her fingers in different ways, before getting an idea. Whilst Admiral Jeong Jeong was teaching Aang about how to do a hot squat, she walked up to him and asked him if he could heat up a bowl of water.

“How’s firebending going?” She asked Aang as Jeong Jeong took the bowl in his hands and set it steaming.

He managed a weak smile, but she could see that his legs were shaking. “Master Jeong Jeong told me I was a lot more energetic than his last pupil was!”

“Who was that?” Katara asked. “Did you teach some of these soldiers?”

Jeong Jeong shook his head. “I had the honor of teaching a Prince of our Nation.”

Katara’s interest vanished, and was replaced with disgust. _Wonderful._ “You taught him how to wage war like his father, huh?”

“The Prince is nothing like his father,” Jeong Jeong declared firmly. “He was honorable enough to speak out against the madness, and he is brave enough to continue to stand against the insanity of Ozai’s senseless war. He is ten times the man the Fire Lord is, and I am sure he will surpass his father as a bender, too.”

Aang seemed a bit put out by that. “But you told me I picked up on my inner flame way quicker than he did!”

“And yet you still have much to learn!” Jeong Jeong snapped, rounding on him. “Though he lacks your natural talent, Avatar, the Prince applied himself to learning to control his fire with great dedication! You must learn control,” he finished. “Or else you will be consumed.”

Katara wanted to tell the old firebender to stop shouting at Aang, but he abruptly thrust the bowl in her hand, and turned around and walked away.

“Yeesh,” she muttered. “What a grump.”

“He’s super grumpy,” Aang agreed. “Worse than _Zuko_. I can’t believe I wanted to learn from him.”

Katara hadn’t been able to believe it when Aang had told her they were going to be staying here for a while longer, either. They’d been so close to the North Pole – Sokka had said that he’d thought they could even be less than a week away! She’d been less than a _week_ away from finally learning to waterbend from a master, and then Aang had said that he wanted to learn firebending from Jeong Jeong.

But what had she been meant to do? Aang was the Avatar, and he had to learn the other three elements. When it really came down to it, Aang had to come first, and if Katara had to make some sacrifices, that was what she needed to do. Aunt Wu had been really patient with her, and Katara had resolved to try and be more patient with Aang – besides, like Sokka had said, there was always the possibility that Aang was…

It was really weird that Aang seemed so unhappy about being able to learn firebending, though, Katara thought. It could have been really hard for Aang to find a firebending teacher that was willing to defy the Fire Lord for him, but Zuko had seemed pretty happy to help Aang learn. And then, when Sokka and Zuko had needed to leave, Aang had just found another firebending teacher really easily – but over the past few days, he hadn’t really seemed all that excited about being able to learn.

Katara hadn’t even been able to find _one_ waterbending master, let alone _two_. But that wasn’t Aang’s fault, she sighed. She had her waterbending scroll, and as much as she hated to accept a firebender’s advice on bending, Zuko had actually been quite helpful when he’d talked about how important his root was to his bending. The more she concentrated on _not_ using her legs when she bent, and instead _focusing_ on her upper body, the more she found that she was using her shoulders, arms, hands and fingers to bend in new and exciting ways.

Katara examined her hands with newfound interest. Even the slightest difference, like deciding whether to halt the force of a bending movement at her wrist or choosing to carry it down to the tips of her fingers, had such an effect on the water.

She wondered if it had a similar effect on fire.

…

Jeong Jeong’s way of firebending was _way_ different to Zuko’s, and it _sucked_.

Zuko didn’t actually do much firebending, so Aang didn’t get to see him bend very often, but whenever he did, it was kind of boring. He’d sit down with his candles and breathe for ages, or he’d light the cooking fires and heat up tea, or something, but he didn’t really _do_ much.

Aang wanted to learn the cool firebending stuff, but Zuko didn’t know how to have fun, so he never taught him. He just kept talking about how firebenders needed to learn _control_ and how they needed to _channel their passion_ , or whatever.

Aang had already realized that he was passionate about fun in their very first meditations session together, but he’d known even then that Zuko wouldn’t be very impressed with that. He’d had to be really patient and wait for a firebending teacher who’d be able to teach him, and when Jeong Jeong had agreed to teach him, he’d been excited about _finally_ getting to learn some cool firebending moves. But Jeong Jeong was even more boring when it came to firebending than Zuko was!

“Breathe!”

“Widen your stance!”

“Do not burn the leaf!”

 _Ugh_. It was like Monk Tashi had suddenly turned out to be the Avatar and started firebending. His historical nickname would definitely have been The Most Boring Avatar.

Well, Aang was tired of being bored! He gave up on his really wide breathing stance and started walking towards Jeong Jeong’s hut, but he had to do it slowly because his thighs kind of hurt.

“What are you doing here?” Jeong Jeong didn’t look too happy to see him. “I did not tell you to stop!”

“I've been breathing for hours!” Aang protested. He was an _airbender_ , for crying out loud! If there was one thing Aang knew how to do, it was breathe!

Jeong Jeong didn’t seem impressed, though. “You want to stop breathing?”

“I want you to stop wasting my time!” Aang told him. “I already know how to squat and breathe and feel the sun! I want to know how to shoot fire out of my fingertips!”

But Jeong Jeong didn’t tell Aang how to shoot fire out of his fingertips. Instead, he just went on a long rant about how he once had a pupil who had no interest in learning discipline, but who just wanted to know the power of fire.

“Learn restraint,” Jeong Jeong concluded, “Or risk destroying yourself, and everything you love.”

What? Aang didn’t care about the power of fire, either! He was a monk, so he didn’t care about _power_ – he was only trying to learn firebending because he was the Avatar, and he was kind of _supposed_ to master all four elements. That was his _job_.

But his job as the Avatar was supposed to be about bringing balance, Aang remembered. His legs were really hurting from his wide breathing stance, and Jeong Jeong hadn’t given him any new exercises, so he sat down to meditate. Maybe if it had helped Zuko with his firebending, it would help Aang with his firebending.

After about half an hour, Aang was bored of meditating, but he’d come to an important realisation. Jeong Jeong had said that his pupil had wanted to destroy his opponents and wipe out the obstacles in his path, but Aang didn’t want to destroy people _at all_. He couldn’t lie and say that wiping out all the obstacles in his path wasn’t pretty appealing, but destroying people went against everything the monks had taught him.

Aang might have been trying to learn firebending, but he was the last airbender. He couldn’t abandon what the monks had taught him. When Jeong Jeong found him another hour later, he knew what he had to say.

“I thought about what you said,” he told Jeong Jeong. “I promise I'll be more patient.”

Jeong Jeong seemed about as pleased as he was ever going to seem. “We're going to work with fire now,” he announced.

“Oh, yeah!” Aang whooped as he airbent himself into the air, before he remembered that he had made an airbender’s promise to Zuko that he was going to be a serious firebending student who hated fun. “I mean, uh. Let us begin.”

But just as Jeong Jeong had given him a leaf and told him to stop it from burning the middle of the leaf, someone came running up to them and told him that there was some trouble happening somewhere, or something. To tell the truth, Aang had missed what he’d been saying; he’d been concentrating on the leaf, like a serious student. But then Jeong Jeong left to go see whatever was going on, and he didn’t even tell Aang _why_ he was supposed to be concentrating on this stupid leaf!

“This is the worst firebending instruction ever,” Aang grumbled to Katara. “All he does is leave me for hours to concentrate or breathe!”

“I'm sure there's a good reason,” Katara reassured him, but Aang was done with how his firebending teacher was taking all the fun out of his bending.

“But I'm ready to do so much more!” He whined.

Monk Gyatso had used to say that freedom and fun were the key to airbending, and now Jeong Jeong was making firebending super boring. Monk Pasang had told Aang that he was an even better airbender than some of his teachers, and now he was stuck with stupid leaves and stupid hot squats.

Well, Aang had had enough of boring hot squats! How was he supposed to show Katara that he was a powerful bender without doing super cool bending? He concentrated on making the leaf burn, and cheered as it became a small fire with a _whoof_ noise.

“I did it!” He cheered, turning to show Katara. “I made fire!”

“Aang, that's great,” she praised him, giving him a smile. “But you should take it slow.”

“Don’t worry, Katara,” he reassured her. “I told Zuko I was going to be a serious student, remember?”

He tossed the flame back and forth in his hands, trying to get a feel for it. It was so light, he thought to himself. The fire in his hands was almost as light as air!

“Now that's some firebending!” He turned to Katara with a grin, happy to show her how well he was going.

She must have said something in response, but Aang suddenly had a great idea. Zuko had been teaching him how to spin the marbles, acorns and pebbles in a cool circle, and he’d gotten good at bending all kinds of small objects with different weights. But if he bent this fire, which had practically _no_ weight, he could make it go really fast!

Aang spread his hands to begin the bending form that would make the fire go into a circle, and then everything went really wrong really fast. The fire _blew_ out way past where he had wanted it to go to when he had moved his hands, and Katara cried out in pain as the flames whipped past her.

“My _hands!_ ” She screamed.

“Katara!” Aang had to drop the fire as he tried to move towards her. “I’m so sorry!”

But Katara wasn’t listening to him. “Go away!” She shouted, and she ran away from him.

Aang wanted to run after her, but his legs were so sore from all the hot squats Jeong Jeong had made him do. He only managed to chase Katara for a few steps before his legs gave way and he fell over.

“I’m sorry!” He cried out after her. “Katara, I’m sorry!”

“What’s going on here?”

Aang looked up to see Jeong Jeong looking down at him. He didn’t look pleased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote about how Zuko struggled to earn Jeong Jeong's respect in [Chapter Four](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29029698/chapters/71532090) of my prequel fic, 'The Blue Spirit: Year One'.


	42. Chapter 42

Zuko accepted his cup of _shōgayu_ tea from Uncle Iroh and murmured his thanks as he considered the Pai Sho board in front of him.

It was like he had never left, he thought wryly to himself, setting a chrysanthemum tile down and creating a harmony. He could have been thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and now that he was sixteen, he was still sitting down with Uncle, drinking tea and playing Pai Sho.

He felt a lot happier about it now that he was sixteen than he had done back when he was thirteen, though. He supposed that counted for something.

“It seems that you have slipped back into bad habits since we parted ways in Omashu, Nephew,” Uncle observed, placing a knotweed tile in the second quadrant and upsetting Zuko’s plans to put a rhododendron there. “I would have favored the wheel tile, personally.”

The wheel would have helped him secure the third quadrant, but Zuko was planning something a bit more ambitious. “I’m sure you would, Uncle. But I won our match last night, remember?”

“I thought offering you a victory might settle your nerves more than offering you a sticky bun,” Uncle replied straight-facedly.

“I think I’d have preferred the sticky bun,” Zuko grumbled as he set a white jade tile down.

“A man may prefer all sorts of things that may not come to pass,” Uncle said, blocking his white jade with a rock tile. “For instance, though I do not wish to part with four hundred gold pieces, I would prefer to do so when faced with the alternative.”

When Sokka had told Uncle bluntly that he needed four hundred gold pieces in four days’ time, Uncle had been so shocked that he had just continued pouring his jasmine tea until long after the cup had overflowed.

“Thanks, Uncle,” Zuko mumbled. “I appreciate that.”

“Oh, not for your sake, Nephew,” Uncle shook his head. “In fact, I much prefer the company of the lovely Miss June to yours.”

Zuko briefly considered setting the Pai Sho board on fire, but discarded it. This was the board Lu Ten had given him for his ninth birthday.

“If it helps, Uncle,” he offered. “Zhao was only able to capture me because he attacked me dishonorably.”

“It grieves me to admit that I would believe such a thing of Admiral Zhao,” Uncle sighed, shaking his head. “How, then, Nephew, did such a thing occur?”

“We fought an Agni Kai,” Zuko explained. “I had to accept single combat so he wouldn’t harm the nuns at the abbey.”

“Judging from your lack of serious injury, might I assume that you defeated Admiral Zhao?”

“I did, Uncle,” Zuko confirmed, allowing himself a smug smile. “I beat him. I even used Bumi’s backhanded attack, but it, uh, wasn’t very effective.”

“Much as the knotweed, the boat, and even the wheel, the rock tile may sometimes not be the most effective tile to use.”

Zuko’s smirk slipped into a scowl. _Now he tells me_.

“I am pleased to hear of your victory, Prince Zuko,” Uncle told him, setting a white lotus tile down in the – oh, for Agni’s _sake…_

Zuko groaned as Uncle took care to be gentle with the tiles as he first flipped Zuko’s tiles into disharmony, before going on to flip his own tiles into harmony. He could feel the smugness radiating off Uncle like heat off his stupid jasmine tea.

“But I fear that, whilst you may have defeated an admiral, there is still a retired general who is in a fine run of winning form,” Uncle concluded with a broad smile.

“I just beat you in our last game yesterday,” Zuko reminded him, collecting the tiles up and storing them back in the bag.

“And yet I am undefeated today,” Uncle pointed out. “A fine run of form.”

Zuko huffed. “I was trying to use the white dragon tile to split your board.”

“A good strategy, Nephew,” Uncle allowed him a compliment. “But, unfortunately, one that I was present for when King Bumi taught you.”

Zuko pulled a face at the mention of the kooky old earthbender. “You know that Bumi didn’t tell Aang that I was a firebender, Uncle?”

“No, Nephew,” Uncle seemed honestly surprised at the news. “I did not know this.”

“Well, neither did I. So Katara and Sokka didn’t know, either.”

“Ah,” Uncle winced. “I can imagine there must have been quite a misunderstanding at some point during your travels.”

“It happened on our very first evening,” Zuko complained. “The cooking fire had gone out, so I asked Katara if she wanted me to do anything about it – and she said yes, so I bent a bit of fire to light it.”

“That was very helpful of you, Nephew.”

“It _was_ ,” Zuko agreed indignantly. “And then she hit me in the head with a frying pan!”

“Ah,” Uncle said blithely. “That is… a rather passionate reaction.”

“You know what Bumi had told Aang?” Zuko demanded. “He told him that the Dark Water Spirit was a friend of the Avatar!” He threw his hands in the air. “What was he supposed to do with that?”

He glared at Uncle as the old man laughed. “It’s not _funny_ , Uncle! She hated my guts! And I’m pretty sure Sokka wanted to slit my throat in my sleep that night!”

“I’m sorry, Nephew,” Uncle chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. “It’s only – the thought of an unsuspecting Miss Katara seeing you bend for the first time – and how she responded…”

He was overcome by another fit of giggles.

“Whenever you’re ready, Uncle,” Zuko grumbled. “Just make sure you tell me before June gets here.”

“Was it rather a forceful swing of the frying pan, Nephew?”

“Look, Uncle, if you’re just going to laugh, I’m leaving, all right? It really hurt!”

“I’m sorry, Zuko,” Uncle breathed deeply, and managed to get himself under control. “It’s only that – I suppose you both made quite an impression on each other!”

Just for that, Zuko reached into the bag, pulled out that replacement white lotus tile he’d gotten in Makapu, and set it on fire right in front of Uncle’s eyes. Uncle was still chuckling to himself when he left the room.

Since his banishment, Zuko had managed to win almost _twenty_ games against Uncle – _he_ had it at nineteen, but Uncle always seemed to conveniently forget that time he’d won on Uncle’s birthday last year, when Uncle was under the influence of one of Ensign Takahashi’s concoctions – but this one had put Uncle up on six hundred and fifty-six.

Zuko resolved that he was going to break twenty before June showed up. Even if he had to bribe Taki with a whole boxful of fireflakes to make it happen.

…

_ Not my hands _ , Katara begged silently, biting back a scream as she raced towards the water. _Please, spirits, not my hands_.

She’d spent all morning practicing, learning more and more ways to bend her element. She’d been exploring the way she could manipulate the water with so many twists and flicks of her hands. She was born to be a waterbender, it was the gift the spirits had given her, the reason she had come so far, but if her hands were burnt –

She needed water, she thought desperately. If she could treat the burns, she might be able to escape without lasting damage. But she had to find water, she needed to cool the inflamed skin.

_ Please let my hands be okay _ .

She let out a whimper as she dropped to her knees and plunged her hands into the river. The water stung as it washed over her hands, but it had to work, it _had_ to. She’d spent so long wanting to bend, and she was only now getting the chance, but if her fingers were damaged and she couldn’t control the water –

_ Please, please, please let my hands be okay _ .

Suddenly, the water started glowing. She looked on in bewilderment as the blue light surrounded her hands, and the pain faded. _The pain faded_ …

Cautiously, hardly daring to hope, she slowly drew her hands out. They were cool in the winter’s chill, but they weren’t burning with cold – they weren’t burning at all, they weren’t _burnt_ , she was _okay_ –

“You have healing abilities.”

Jeong Jeong stood behind her at a distance. She was grateful for that. If a firebender had been standing behind her without her knowing…

Even if it was someone Sokka or Aang or Zuko trusted, she didn’t _like_ the idea.

“The great benders of the Water Tribe sometimes have this ability,” Jeong Jeong continued, staring at her hands with an unreadable expression. “I've always wished I were blessed like you – free from this burning curse.”

He looked down at the ground and closed his eyes.

Katara couldn’t understand. A bender who resisted their element? Who _resented_ their element?

“But you're a great master,” she pointed out confusedly. “You have powers that I’ll never know.”

“Water brings healing and life,” Jeong Jeong stated, walking forward slowly. Katara tensed, but the firebender was keeping his hands behind his back and walking slowly, so she slowly relaxed. Zuko had said that if a firebender’s body was unbalanced, their breathing and their bending would be unbalanced.

“But fire brings only destruction and pain,” Jeong Jeong continued. “It forces those of us burdened with its care to walk a razor's edge between humanity and savagery. Eventually, we are torn apart.”

Katara’s surprise must have shown on her face, because he smiled without any humor. “But you have already decided what side of that line my Nation has chosen.”

“Only because they chose first,” she defended herself.

“You assume I am a savage man, then?” He shook his head. “Have you never met a firebender who wished good upon you?”

Katara remembered that Fire Sage, Shyu. And how Zuko had helped her with her meditations, and helped her learn a little more about how to use her hands to bend.

She hoped he and Sokka were doing okay.

Jeong Jeong must have taken her silence for rejection – but she wasn’t sure what she would have said if she’d spoken. He shook his head, regardless. “Not every child of the Fire Nation is evil, Miss Katara.”

Even if that was true, she couldn’t help but feel _hatred_ for that nation of _ashmakers_. “The Fire Nation attacked my village – _so_ many times. How can you defend them?”

“The Fire Lord’s war is awful,” Jeong Jeong agreed. The simplicity with which he said it stunned her. “It is an affront to all the spirits, and all honor. But those in the Nation and beyond who have honor _do_ oppose the war.”

Katara struggled to understand. “Why does honor matter so much in the Fire Nation?”

“Because honor is a mark of your worth,” the old firebender stated simply. “If the Fire Lord declares you honored, you will have fame, glory, and riches. If you are declared dishonored – for Agni’s favored to scorn you so…” He shook his head. “It is a death knell upon your name.”

In the Southern Water Tribe, the mark of your worth was how willing and reliable you were, and how much the Tribe trusted you. It was something you earned by your actions. Katara couldn’t understand how someone could be _worthy_ or _unworthy_ based upon what other people said about your actions. Your actions spoke for _themselves_. They mattered more than your words.

“You said that you taught the Fire Prince,” Katara remembered.

“I did.”

“And you said that he was honorable enough to speak out against the madness.”

Jeong Jeong looked like he was about to say something when the water in front of them _burst_ into flames.

Katara scrambled backwards from the water, and Jeong Jeong sprang up to his feet with surprising agility for such an old man. It must have been all those hot squats he’d been training Aang in.

“Find the Avatar, and flee!” Jeong Jeong shouted, pushing her away from the burning heat and assuming a bending stance. “Do not come back here – or you will be destroyed! Hurry!”

Katara raced into the camp, searching for Aang and Appa. She spotted Jeong Jeong’s hut, where Aang had convinced the old firebender to teach him. Aang was sitting down hunched over by the empty firepit when Katara joined him.

“Jeong Jeong tried to tell me that I wasn't ready,” he whispered. “I wouldn't listen. I'm never going to firebend again.”

He looked so sad that she couldn’t help but reach out and pull him in for a hug. She knew he hadn’t meant to hurt her – he’d just been over-enthusiastic. It wasn’t his fault.

“Aang, no,” she tried to reassure him. “It’s okay – it was only your first try. We can try again – or we can talk with Zuko when we see him again?”

Aang let out a sniffle. “I don’t want to firebend anymore, Katara.”

“That’s okay, too,” she soothed him. “We can tell Jeong Jeong that.”

“I don’t want to see Jeong Jeong, either,” Aang admitted. “He was – he was really scary.”

“He shouldn’t have been,” Katara told him. Aang was only a kid – he was only twelve years old, and Jeong Jeong had been so tough on him.

Aang leaned back and wiped his eyes. “Can we go now?”

She remembered that Jeong Jeong had told them to leave. She was pretty sure leaving might be a good thing, all things considered.

“Sure, Aang,” she agreed. “That sounds like a great idea.”

…

Avatar Roku had been wrong. Zuko had been wrong. Aang had been wrong.

Firebending was awful!

Aang felt so ashamed that he didn’t speak to Katara as he flew Appa north. He’d asked her to give him the map so that he wouldn’t even have to ask her for directions. He just felt so sad and ashamed and disappointed in himself that he didn’t want to talk to her.

Aang couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been! He’d been so busy trying to do some serious firebending that he’d forgotten to be serious about his firebending, and then he’d _burned_ Katara. He’d tried to do his marbles trick with fire, and it had all gone so wrong!

Jeong Jeong had been right all along. Fire _was_ a horrible burden to bear. It consumed and destroyed _everything_ around it. Aang only had to look at the world to see how fire could spread and destroy everything in its path.

As the Avatar, it was Aang’s duty to protect the balance, but the world was so out of balance because of firebending. He needed to set an example for all the people out there who had suffered because of the imbalance. If Aang wanted to set an example for the world, he had to show that he could stand against how dangerous firebending was.

So Aang had come to an important decision – he was never going to firebend again. Even though he’d promised Zuko on his airbender’s honor that he wouldn’t mess about, he’d still screwed up when he’d been firebending. There was something about fire that made him want to show off. He couldn’t do that!

Zuko had been right about one thing, though. Back when they’d first met, he’d told Aang that the Avatar Cycle followed a pattern for a reason. Like Sokka had said: it went air-water-earth-fire, not air-and-then-whatever-Aang-wanted-to-learn-to-bend-next.

Yet again, Zuko had been right about this, but he seemed so insistent that firebending wasn’t evil, that it didn’t consume and destroy. Aang wondered how his friend could be so perceptive about so many things, but so blind to this truth. But he couldn’t talk to Zuko about this right now, because he and Sokka had gone to go and see Zuko’s uncle, Master Iroh. Zuko had told Aang that Iroh had said it was a bad idea for mortals to mess with the spirits, so he clearly had some wisdom, and Zuko always said his uncle was the wisest man he knew. Aang wondered what Master Iroh would tell him about firebending.

He wondered if Sokka would tell Aang that he should try and be more sympathetic to Zuko. When he’d talked to Aang about the way he’d been making Katara’s waterbending look bad, he’d reminded Aang that Katara wanted to learn waterbending, not firebending or airbending. Just because Katara had wanted to know about Aang’s culture and the Air Nomads, he couldn’t make her learn airbending if she wasn’t an airbender.

But whenever Aang thought about Katara, he could only think about the way she had yelled at him to _go away!_

He swallowed hard and looked back at her where she was sitting in Appa’s saddle. She had said her hands were healed and that she hadn’t been mad at him, and Aang had been so relieved that Katara’s hands hadn’t been burned.

“No harm done,” she’d told him, but Aang knew that firebending _had_ caused harm, and it _did_ cause harm.

Even though Zuko always seemed pretty interested in learning about Aang’s airbending, Aang didn’t know if he would want to hear about what Aang had learned about firebending. Maybe Zuko still wasn’t free from the illusions that held him back from seeing the truth about things. Sometimes, it had to be about your spirit.

But Zuko seemed to be quite spiritual, from what Aang had seen so far. He’d helped Aang get into the Spirit World to meet Hei Bai, and he’d helped him talk to Avatar Roku, and he’d helped Aang when the spirits in the Great Divide had been hitting him with stones and pebbles. And Bumi had said that Zuko would know about the Dark Water Spirit, too. Zuko seemed to have understood that the heart of airbending was freedom, and he’d been interested in hearing what Aang had thought about how firebending meditation was different to airbending meditation. Maybe he _would_ want to talk about what Aang was thinking, even when it came to firebending.

“Aang?”

“Huh?” Aang blinked and shook himself back to the physical world. “Katara?”

“Hey, Aang.” Katara waved her hand at him from where she was sitting in Appa’s saddle. Aang saw with relief that it was still unburned. “I was just wondering if you were okay?”

“Oh,” Aang felt so ashamed that Katara was asking him if he was okay after _he_ had burned _her_. “Yeah, I’m okay. I just – I kind of freaked out earlier.”

“It was kind of scary,” Katara agreed. “But I’m okay, Aang.” She showed him her unblemished hands. “See?”

Aang let out a deep sigh. “I just – I was just fooling around and it could have gone really wrong.”

It was true what they said, he concluded. Play with fire, and you could get burned. It was so easy to burn the people he loved. It could have been so much worse, too – Aang could have really hurt Katara. He was so glad she was okay!

“But it didn’t,” Katara reminded him. “I know it must have been pretty scary for you, but we’re both okay.”

“Yeah.” Aang breathed out, and thought about how different firebending was to airbending. He’d almost lost sight of what was truly important – that he was an airbending Avatar, not a firebending Avatar. He’d been so caught up in the light and the _wow_ of fire that he’d almost forgotten who he was.

“Katara?”

“What is it, Aang?”

He bit his lip. He knew they had said that they would leave Jeong Jeong’s camp and head to the North Pole, but right now, Aang really wanted to remind himself that he was an Air Nomad. “Can we go to the Northern Air Temple on our way to the North Pole?”

“I thought we were going to head straight for the Northern Tribe,” Katara said. She looked a little confused.

“I know,” Aang hurried to try and explain. “But it’s just that – I’m an airbender. It’s who I am, it’s the Avatar I am. And I know that it’s my job as the Avatar to learn how to waterbend, but… I’m the last of the Air Nomads, and I don’t want to forget that.” He looked down. “I just really want to remember what kind of Avatar I want to be before I try and _be_ that Avatar.”

Aang promised himself that he was going to be the kind of Avatar who showed that firebending would _not_ consume and destroy him.


	43. Chapter 43

Sokka watched on with Lieutenant Jee as June hefted a large sack onto the shirshu’s neck. The bounty hunter said something to Zuko, who scowled and said something back. Iroh must have said something, because Zuko got a funny look on his face, and June shook her head and turned away.

She hopped up onto the shirshu, and gave a piercing whistle – and then, with a roar, the shirshu scrambled down the ramp, and they were gone.

Sokka felt rather than heard Jee relax next to him.

“Is that it?” He asked, trying not to let his nerves show.

“That’s it,” Jee confirmed. “Miss June has received payment, and in my experience, she rarely sticks around afterwards.”

“I guess I wouldn’t, either,” Sokka agreed, looking over at where Zuko and Iroh were talking. “Zuko always seems kind of pissed off with her.”

Jee looked like he wanted to laugh, but he seemed like a professional sort of military man. “As it happens, I think it’s Master Iroh’s personality that she objects to.”

Sokka was a bit confused, but he let it slide. “You don’t think Zuko’s objectionable?”

“Prince Zuko and I have had our differences of opinion,” Jee responded, and there was _definitely_ a story or two there, Sokka could tell. “But he is an honorable man, and he wants the best for my Nation. I’m proud to serve under him.”

Sokka had picked up on that – the way the crew treated Zuko. He’d told Sokka that he was banished, and that he technically wasn’t a prince anymore; but they kept referring to him by the title.

“I thought Zuko wasn’t a prince anymore,” he said. “Since he got banished.”

Jee scowled. “The Fire Lord is not always correct in his judgements. As the prince was wrongly banished, so he was wrongly stripped of his honor and his title.”

Sokka frowned. “What did he do to get banished?”

“He did the right thing,” Jee responded simply. “Prince Zuko did what had to be done, when no one else would do it. And he did it for the good of the Fire Nation.”

“That… doesn’t actually answer my question.”

“It is not my story to tell. I didn’t hear it from the Prince, and I wish that I hadn’t.” Jee shook his head. “But it opened my eyes to the kind of man the Fire Lord is, and it helped me realize that I could not serve my Nation whilst serving the madman who rules it.”

“You mean, you don’t support the Fire Nation?” Sokka couldn’t believe it. “Then – are you fighting in the war? Are you part of the resistance?” A thought struck him. “Have you heard of Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe?”

“Master Sokka,” Jee raised a hand. “Don’t misunderstand me – I love my country. And I miss my home, and I support my Nation. But I cannot support the power that rules my land. Someday soon, Agni willing, I will return home and pledge myself to a new Fire Lord – but until then, I am not loyal to Ozai, nor will I support him.”

“So you’re not fighting for the Fire Lord,” Sokka conceded. “But – why aren’t you fighting _against_ him? If you’re against the Fire Lord, why aren’t you against the Fire Nation and their army?”

“I am only a lieutenant. Though Prince Zuko and Master Iroh entrust me with a great deal of responsibility in the day-to-day running of this ship, I do not make decisions of strategy or ship policy.” Jee looked over to the two firebenders who were apparently in charge of the ship. “As it happens, Master Iroh is expecting me for a meeting to discuss logistics, Master Sokka. If you will excuse me.”

“Oh,” Sokka said, a bit taken aback by Jee’s business-like manner. “Uh – sure. Have fun with logistics.”

Jee nodded briefly before he moved off. Sokka watched him leave, and wondered what exactly that meeting might entail.

“Logistics?” He muttered.

“It means planning and supplies,” Ensign Takahashi informed him as she stepped forward.

“Oh,” Sokka said. Oh, well, he knew all about those! “How come he didn’t just say that?”

“Jee’s a pedant,” Takahashi answered, coming to stand beside him against the railings. “He’s good at his job, but he’s a boring old bastard – he’d probably swallow his tongue if he found out who the Blue Spirit is. _And_ he’s crap at Pai Sho, too.”

“He seems kind of…” Sokka searched for the word. “Abrupt.”

“You should have seen him three years ago,” Takahashi scoffed. “Guy had a bigger stick up his ass than Zuko.”

 _That’s right_ , Sokka remembered. Zuko said he’d been on a ship for two and a half years. “Back when Zuko was thirteen?”

“He was such a little prick,” Takahashi told him, but she had a fond smile on her face. “But, you know – he grew out of it. He’s always been a good kid, it’s just…” She shrugged. “It took him a while to remember that, after what happened to him.”

Sokka could imagine. If he’d been kicked out of his home at thirteen, he would probably have gone a little crazy, too. He remembered the way he’d banished Katara, and wanted to hit himself round the head.

“So you’ve known Zuko since he was little?” He asked, trying to distract himself from the memory of how much of an idiot he’d been a couple of months ago.

Takahashi laughed. “Yeah, since he was a little kid. I joined the Royal Guard in the Fire Palace when I was, like, eighteen. Straight out of the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. Top of my class,” she added, looking pretty smug.

The resemblance to Suki _was_ striking, Sokka had to admit.

“The Fire Nation lets girls fight in the army,” he said slowly, remembering that Deokhye lady at Jeong Jeong’s camp.

Takahashi’s face twisted. “Don’t tell me you’re one of _those_ guys.”

“One of what guys?” Sokka asked, hastily trying to backtrack. “I’m not saying, like – I know girls can fight! I know this girl, Suki – she doesn’t need me to, like, _protect_ her, or anything!”

“Smart girl,” Takahashi replied, still looking a bit angry at him. Sokka really hoped she wasn’t a firebender. “Yeah, I don’t need a man to protect me. I don’t _want_ a man to protect me. I can handle myself.”

“I just meant it’s weird for me!” Sokka tried to explain. “Like, girls don’t fight, where I’m from.”

“Really?” Takahashi looked disbelieving, but at least she wasn’t trying to crush his skull with her biceps. “ _Weird_. Back in the Fire Nation, girls get taught to fight, same as boys.”

Sokka tried to picture his little sister with a boomerang. It just didn’t seem to fit. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah.” Takahashi let out a laugh. “In fact, when I was part of the Guard for Princess Azula, the Princess’ friend Mai used to come and visit. I taught her how to use throwing knives when she was, like, six. She got pretty good with them.”

When Katara had been six, she’d just learnt how to throw slush water at Sokka when he got her mad. He tried to imagine her with _knives_ , and shuddered.

“The Fire Nation seems _weird_ ,” he decided.

“Yep,” Takahashi agreed, leaning back on the railings. “So does your place, Water Tribe.”

 _Huh_ , Sokka thought. He guessed maybe it kind of would.

…

Katara looked over to where Aang was bending fruit pies over the edge of the cliffs surrounding the Northern Air Temple. He’d been so excited to visit the Northern Air Temple, but when he’d seen what they’d done to his home, he’d been so hurt. Katara had tried to encourage him by pointing out that at least the hermit crabs in the temple were the same as they’d always been, but Aang had just shook his head and said that it wasn’t the same thing.

And when he had gone around to see if any of the people living in the temple were airbenders who just didn’t know it yet, Teo and his father had been a bit put out that Aang was walking up to people and sprinkling pepper in their faces to make them sneeze. Aang had tried to tell them that he’d only been trying to help, but they’d gotten a bit snappy with him. When they’d left the temple, Aang had asked if they had any fruit pies in their supplies, saying that when he had been at the Southern Air Temple with Monk Gyatso, they had always had fun by airbending fruit pies down onto people’s heads.

Aang had been out there for quite some time, and Katara hoped that Monk Gyatso hadn’t always bent _all_ the fruit pies, and that he hadn’t been a monk who also bent rice, noodles, vegetables and fruits off high vantage points as well.

“Aang?” She called. “Can you help me light this fire?”

When Zuko had first joined their group and revealed himself to be a firebender, Katara had been horrified. But as time had gone on, and he hadn’t attacked them or turned on them, Katara had grown more and more used to how he would be the one to light their fires, for cooking and for warmth. Without his quick and easy bending, it would take a little while longer to get started on dinner.

“Sure, Katara,” Aang acknowledged her before making his way over to their bags. “Uh – which bag’s the one with the spark rocks in?”

“The one on the left,” she answered. “But – Aang, are you sure you can’t just light the fire with your firebending?”

Aang paused for a moment before shaking his head. “Sorry, Katara. Jeong Jeong didn’t actually teach me how to do that stuff, remember? He just taught me how to breath, and stuff.”

Katara sighed. It would have been nice if Jeong Jeong had taught Aang a little about how to do _useful_ firebending, but she supposed he was too bitter about how fire was _a_ _terrible, burning curse_ , or something. Still, at least he recognized that the Fire Nation was evil, and he’d helped her understand a little more about how she could use her waterbending to heal.

Aang came over and handed her the spark rocks, and she took them from him gratefully. “Thanks, Aang.”

The _clink_ sounds that she made as she tried to light a fire echoed round the large room of the temple they had decided to stay in. After seeing how much the temple had changed in a hundred years, and how different it was from how it must have been when the monks lived there, Aang hadn’t even wanted to spend the night in the temple – he’d wanted to sleep out under the stars, away from the way the Earth Kingdom refugees had changed it. But the Mechanist had shown him one part of the temple that hadn’t been touched, and he’d grudgingly agreed that they could stay there.

Katara had been relieved to hear that – she hadn’t been looking forward to another night camping if she could avoid it. She’d really wanted to spend a night inside, with a roof over her head and four walls around her. Their tents could keep out the rain and the wind, but just like the night they had stayed in that inn for Zuko’s birthday, and the night they’d stayed in the abbey in Bato’s hut, there was something about the solidity and permanence of a place that made her feel safe. It was like being back _home_.

She hoped that Bato had made it to Dad okay. She hoped that Sokka and Zuko were doing okay, wherever they were. It had been five days since they’d left to go and take care of things with that bounty hunter – if things had gone well with June, they should have been able to start making their way to the North Pole by now.

Aang had finally, _finally_ agreed that they were going to fly to the North Pole tomorrow. She’d been waiting for this since they left Jeong Jeong’s camp, since they left Omashu, since they left the South Pole – she felt like she’d been waiting for this _forever_ , but she couldn’t find it in herself to be happy about it, not when Aang was feeling so hurt by how much the air temple had changed in his absence.

Katara couldn’t… oh, _Aang_.

She couldn’t even begin to imagine how much he must have been hurting, how he must have been feeling. She’d been wanting to go to the Northern Tribe to learn from a waterbender, but at least the Northern Tribe _had_ waterbenders. And though the Southern Tribe wasn’t what her Gran-Gran always told her it had been back when she had been a young woman, at least her people had been able to survive. They hadn’t been lost, and they hadn’t lost hope.

But Aang was the only person who remembered what the Southern Air Temple had been like when it had been full of life and laughter, and none of the Earth Kingdom people living in the Northern Air Temple seemed to be airbenders. The way Aang had ran away when the Mechanist had told him that none of them wanted to see if they were airbenders if it involved having pepper shoved under their noses – Katara couldn’t believe that none of them wanted to know if they were benders.

It just didn’t make sense to her. Her bending was a part of who she was – why wouldn’t they want to know if they were benders, too? She couldn’t understand.

But tomorrow, they would be leaving for the North Pole, she reminded herself to give her a bit of optimism. And before too long, they would be arriving at the Northern Water Tribe, and finally – _finally_ – she would find a waterbending master.

…

“You know, Taki told me a story or two about you when you were little,” Sokka greeted Zuko as he emerged out onto the deck.

Zuko groaned. He should have been quicker to bribe her with those fireflakes; it would probably have put her in a better mood towards him. “What’d she tell you?”

“Oh, nothing,” Sokka shrugged. “Just about how you used to play with this girl, Mai, and let her throw knives at you.”

“Only when she got good,” Zuko corrected him. “Don’t go getting ideas.”

“Well, the way Taki told it, I think it’s _you_ who shouldn’t be getting ideas. She said she walked in on you two having a pretend wedding.”

“I was _nine years old_ , Sokka,” Zuko snapped back. “And we had a _pretend_ Fire Sage to officiate. It wasn’t legitimate!”

Sokka chuckled, but he held up his hands. “Hey, Zuko, I’m only playing. I know you’re not gonna marry Mai.”

“Oh.” Zuko winced. “Sorry.”

“Yeah,” Sokka continued. “Remember our talk in Makapu? About how you’re going to settle down with some other weirdo who dresses up as a spirit and messes with the Fire Nation?”

Zuko should have known it was too good to be true.

“Fuck _off_ , Sokka,” he grumbled. “I’m going to ban you from talking to my crew.”

“Hey, now,” the Water Tribe boy laughed. “Come on, man, I’m messing. I like your crew – they seem cool.”

If they were talking to Sokka whilst on duty, they seemed incredibly unprofessional to Zuko. “Even Jee?”

“Well, Jee seems like kind of a hardass,” Sokka conceded. “But, you know – he likes you.”

Zuko frowned doubtfully. He couldn’t imagine Jee ever admitting anything like that. “Really?”

“Okay, ‘like’ might be a bit strong. But he respects you. Says you want what’s best for the Fire Nation.”

Zuko sighed, and raised his face to look towards the west and the setting sun. Somewhere over the horizon, his homeland and his destiny awaited him. “I do.”

“But that’s what I don’t get,” Sokka said earnestly. “You’re loyal to the Fire Nation, but – you don’t support the war.”

Zuko didn’t support the war. He had done, once. He had believed that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was the Nation’s way of sharing their greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was.

“The best thing for the Nation is _peace_ ,” Zuko said. He felt the truth of it as deeply as he had done the first time he had said it out loud, when Uncle had nodded, and the Sun Warriors had agreed, and the dragons had roared their approval.

He turned to Sokka. “The Fire Nation needs Aang to restore the balance just as much as everyone else. Our people are dying in a war that serves no purpose; the people of the world are terrified of the Fire Nation. They don’t see our greatness – they _hate_ us. And we deserve it.”

He turned back towards the west, and remembered his destiny.

 _To do the right thing. To do what has to be done, when no one else will do it. For the good of the Fire Nation_.

“The Fire Lord said I had lost my honor,” he explained. The way he had screamed during his first Agni Kai had caused permanent and irreversible damage to his vocal cords, and his voice came out in a rasp. “But I had to lose my honor as the Nation understands it, so I could understand that a false honor is no honor at all.”

“Jee said that the Fire Lord was wrong to take your honor from you.”

“I believe he was.”

“But what –” Sokka hesitated, and Zuko braced himself. He’d known the question was coming all along.

“What did you _do?_ ” Sokka asked quietly. “What did you do that the Fire Lord hated so much that he _banished_ you?”

Zuko had asked himself that question so many times over the past three years. Perhaps it had been because he had spoken out of turn. Perhaps because he had stood against the senseless slaughter of helpless, untrained new recruits. Perhaps because he had refused to fight his own father. Perhaps it was all of these.

Perhaps it was none of them.

“I did the right thing.”

“That’s what Jee said, too,” Sokka folded his arms. “But he didn’t tell me _what_. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he continued before Zuko could respond, and he breathed a sigh of relief. “But… I wanted to hear it from you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ve been with us for the past two months, and you haven’t hurt Aang. You even saved him, back in Pohuai.”

Sokka was looking at him with a calculating, assessing stare, and Zuko remembered the way he had been able to put the pieces together and figure out that he was the Blue Spirit. In fairness, he hadn’t done a very good job of covering his tracks.

“But the Fire Lord wanted you to capture him – and instead, you did the right thing.”

“That’s what I try to do.”

“And the Fire Lord thought you did something wrong that you needed to be banished for,” Sokka said slowly. “But the Fire Lord is fighting this war, and you’re fighting for peace.”

“I’m my mother’s son,” Zuko told him. “I’m not my father’s son. Not anymore. That’s why – that’s why I didn’t tell you. Because it doesn’t matter anymore.”

Sokka nodded deliberately, and seemed to come to a decision. He held out his hand to Zuko. “Okay.”

Zuko looked at the hand. Was this some Water Tribe custom? He hesitantly held out his own. He thought he saw Sokka roll his eyes before reaching out and clasping his fingers around his forearm.

“Water Tribe, buddy,” Sokka explained, with flashing blue eyes and a confident smirk. “We respect someone who tries to do the right thing.”

Zuko let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, and it seemed like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. “Thanks, Sokka.”

“We’re fighting to end this war,” Sokka said. “And I know that, for me, that means fighting against your country. I know you don’t see it that way, but – even so. I’m glad I’m fighting with you, not against you. Even if the Fire Nation doesn’t have honor, I know you do.”

“I still believe in my Nation, Sokka,” Zuko tried to explain. “That’s – that’s _why_ I’m fighting. Even if the Fire Lord doesn’t have honor, once we win the war, we can put a new Fire Lord on the throne. One with honor, who’ll do the right thing.”

Sokka was silent for a moment, and Zuko wondered if he’d gone too far. But the Water Tribe boy only gave him another thoughtful look.

“Honor has to be true to be meaningful,” Sokka said. “The Fire Lord’s honor might be meaningless, but – I know you’re telling the truth.”

“Always,” Zuko said fervently. “Sokka, I’ve never lied to you. Not to you, not to Aang, not to Katara.”

“I know,” Sokka agreed. “But you haven’t always told the truth. I’m not saying you need to tell them everything,” he went on as Zuko tried to protest. “But we’re gonna need to figure out what we’re going to tell them.”

“What do you mean?”

Sokka smirked. “Well, to start with, we’re going to tell them about how you got married to Knife Girl when you were nine.”


	44. Chapter 44

Water was an element of adaptation. It could change, and it could flow around obstacles, but it would always return to the sea. It might take a hundred lifetimes, but it would reach the end of its road.

Katara had never felt less like a waterbender than when she walked into the healing hut to see that she would be learning alongside a bunch of tiny girls.

“Are you Yugoda?” She asked the woman sitting with the girls.

“Are you here for the healing lesson?” She was asked in return.

Katara sighed. “I guess I am.”

Healing lessons. Katara had come all this way – she had waited _all this time_ – and she had finally reached the North Pole, only to be told that she couldn’t learn waterbending with Aang. The Avatar got to learn combative waterbending from Master Pakku, and that was _great_ , really, Katara was just glad that Aang got to learn, but…

But she’d been waiting for this chance for _fourteen years_ , and whilst Aang got to learn how to fight, and how to protect the people he cared about, Katara was sitting in a healing hut with a bunch of girls ten years younger than she was, learning how to heal.

She supposed she should be grateful for that, at least.

“Thanks for the lesson,” she said to Yugoda glumly at the end of the lesson. Gran-Gran had always told her to respect her elders, and she wasn’t about to forget that just because some old man named _Pakku_ was being a…

Well, Sokka would know what to call him, anyway.

Yugoda inclined her head. “So, who's the lucky boy?”

 _Lucky boy?_ “Huh?”

Katara’s confusion must have shown, because Yugoda motioned to her mother’s necklace. “Your betrothal necklace. You're getting married, right?”

A betrothal necklace? That didn’t make _any_ sense to Katara. And _marriage_ was an even more ridiculous concept. The only time she’d had to think about marrying anyone in the last however many months was in Makapu, when Aunt Wu had told her she was going to marry a powerful bender.

But that had been after Taku, she remembered. Just after Aang had been captured, but he’d escaped. He’d said that the Blue Spirit had saved him, and he’d… _given her necklace back to her_.

She realized that she’d been awfully silent for a moment, and scrambled to respond to Yugoda. “Ah – no. I don't think I'm ready for that yet. My grandmother gave my mother this necklace and my mother passed it down to me."

Strangely, it was that mention of her grandmother that helped Yugoda remember where she had seen that necklace before. It had belonged to her Gran-Gran, and Yugoda had known her when she had been younger! She had been engaged to a young waterbender, but she’d left. That seemed so strange to Katara. If she could marry a bender – and from what Aunt Wu had told her, she was getting a growing suspicion – she knew she would. She wanted someone to bend with; someone to practice with.

But she thought she’d just be happy to _learn_ , at this point.

She was still thinking about it later, when Aang knocked on her door that night.

“Hey, Katara,” he greeted her. “Everything okay?”

Katara sighed, but she refused to let her blue mood get Aang down. “Hey, Aang. Everything’s pretty cool, I guess. How’s waterbending?”

Aang smiled, and she was encouraged to see that at least he was getting the chance to learn. “It’s really cool! Master Pakku’s been telling me how to do that streaming the water move you do, but he’s been calling it something different. It’s got a lot more rising and falling than the one you showed me.”

Katara had been _trying_ to get used to the idea of letting the water rise and fall like the tideline, but then they’d had to make for Jeong Jeong’s camp, and things had gotten a bit complicated. She’d been finding it easier to bend it in the hot water bowl she’d been setting up in the mornings with Zuko, but he’d been encouraging her to try bending the cold, too.

“You’re getting really strong with the hot water,” he’d said. “But you should try it with the cold, too. You shouldn’t neglect the aspects of your training that you’re weaker in.”

Katara hadn’t had _any_ intention of neglecting _any_ aspects of her training, back then. But now, she couldn’t even train, because Pakku wouldn’t teach her. She’d finally found a waterbender to teach her, and he _wouldn’t_. But Zuko wasn’t a waterbender… and _he’d_ been able to help her with some of her practice…

Katara had an idea.

“Aang,” she began, trying to stay calm and not get excited. She’d already been disappointed before. “Can you teach me what you’re learning from Master Pakku?”

Aang blinked. “What? Do you mean, like, what he’s teaching me?”

“Yeah,” Katara confirmed. She could see it now – it was just like she’d hoped for when Aunt Wu had told her that she would marry a powerful bender! Her and her husband, practicing their elements together at night, learning together.

She could feel her excitement growing as she tried to convince Aang. “At night, you can teach me whatever moves you learn from Master Pakku! That way, you have someone to practice with, and I get to learn waterbending! Everyone's happy!”

It must have been the idea of making everyone happy that convinced Aang. He was always so eager for everyone to get along – he brightened up at the thought when she said it.

“Okay, Katara,” he agreed. “We can give it a try, tonight.”

If she was honest with herself, Katara would have wanted to go _now_. But she had waited for such a long time… she could probably afford to wait a little longer. But now that Aang was about to teach her waterbending, she knew she’d made the right decision in coming to the North Pole. How many _benders_ , let alone waterbenders, got to say that they’d learnt from the _Avatar?_

“Thank you so much, Aang,” she told him gratefully. “This is going to be amazing, I just know it!”

…

As Iroh had noted upon his nephew’s return to the ship, he had not had the opportunity to get to know the young Master Sokka in Omashu. He had enjoyed the double blessing of a cup of jasmine tea with Miss Katara, and found her to be a lovely young lady of great charm and kindness, but the Avatar and his companions had departed before he had been able to host her brother in similar fashion.

He had even been able to teach Miss Katara the rudimentary basics of Pai Sho, and he had rather hoped that Master Sokka would be interested in learning a thing or two. Iroh was always on the lookout for new playing partners, though it seemed that Master Sokka sadly differed from his sister in this regard.

“Sorry, General Iroh,” he shook his head. “But I don’t really get the game. Like, the boat’s Water Tribe, that’s cool, but I’m gonna be too busy trying to figure out why a wheel is supposed to represent air to play, you know?”

A pity, Iroh sighed to himself. It saddened him to hear that a prospective student was not interested in the finest game of all. But there was another matter to address that grieved Iroh far more than Master Sokka’s choice of pastimes.

“Please, Master Sokka,” he began. “There is no need for the formality of addressing me by my rank.”

“Oh, cool.” Master Sokka _did_ look a little relieved at that. Iroh could not blame him – general was a high rank, and the Fire Nation showered those who achieved it with great glory.

Iroh’s Nation had become so lost, he thought sadly to himself. They had forgotten what was important.

 _General Iroh, I will see you again when victory is obtained. Your loyal son, Lu Ten_.

General Iroh, he had been called. By his own beloved son.

“But if I’m just gonna call you Master Iroh, you can just call me Sokka,” the boy went on. “Unless, like, that’s uncool? I can call you ‘Prince Iroh’ or something, if you want.”

Iroh shook his head. “There is no need for that either, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. I am not defined by my relationship to my brother.”

Nor was his nephew defined by his relationship to his father, he thought.

“You may call me Iroh, if that pleases you.”

“That makes sense,” Sokka nodded, raising his cup of tea and taking a long drink. Iroh tried not to cringe at the way he _slurped_ it. Surely even his nephew had not been so uncaring of the delicate nature of ginseng!

“Like, my Dad’s the chief of the Southern Tribe,” Sokka went on, pulling a face once he’d finished his cup.

 _Scandalous_.

“But people don’t call me ‘Sokka, the chief’s son’. I’m just Hakoda’s kid. But if I could get away with it, I’d definitely make Bato start calling me that.” He chuckled. “He’d hate that.”

“You are the son of the leader of your people?” Iroh asked with great interest.

“Uh, yeah?” Sokka shrugged. “It’s not all that impressive. I mean, you’ve probably got, like, a palace or whatever, but the South Pole’s mostly just ice and snow, so we don’t have the materials to build a fancy house or anything. Being the chief’s son isn’t any different to being anyone else’s kid – we’ve all got to pull together.”

“It is a noble and praiseworthy thing for a leader to understand the needs and wants of his people,” Iroh said. “I am sure that your father’s care for his people is informed by his knowledge of their condition, Prince Sokka.”

Sokka laughed out loud at that, which Iroh found quite gratifying. His nephew was rarely so demonstrative.

“Ah, man, that might be even worse than _Master_ Sokka,” the young man chuckled. “No, seriously – just Sokka. You can call Katara _Princess_ , but – no, that’s not me.”

“Perhaps I shall,” Iroh agreed. Miss Katara had seemed like the kind of young lady who deserved a title, it had to be said. “Speaking of your sister – is she well?”

“She’s doing okay,” Sokka smiled. It was a warm smile with no reserve or hesitation; so different to the smiles Zuko had given whenever he had received missives from Iroh’s associates with updates and information on the Princess Azula’s progress.

“Yeah, she’s really coming on with her waterbending,” Sokka continued. “She was never gonna be able to wait for the North Pole, so she started practicing with Zuko, and then she just never looked back. I think when she gets to the North Pole, she’ll already be able to take on some of the benders there.”

Iroh could have done a joyous wiggle where he sat, but he was an old man who was rather comfortable upon his cushion, so he refrained. “My nephew was of assistance to Miss Katara in her efforts to improve her bending?”

Sokka smirked. “I mean, if you can count acting as a target practice for her water whips _assistance_ , sure. Rather him than me, though – when Katara thinks she’s getting the hang of something, she _really_ practices it.”

“That is a tendency I have observed in my nephew as well,” Iroh offered. “They are admirable traits for your sister to possess.”

“She’s pretty awesome,” Sokka gave another proud smile, and Iroh rejoiced. Oh, that the Water Tribes’ love of family and community might be shared again with his homeland. “I can’t wait for her to show up and show all their waterbenders just how good the ones in the Southern Tribe are.”

“I received word from Master Jeong Jeong earlier that your sister and the Avatar have left his location,” Iroh told Sokka. Jeong Jeong had also stated that there had been no casualties, a detail that Iroh had felt great relief at. “They may be well on their way to the North Pole by now; we shall set sail later today.”

“That’s great!” Sokka cheered, almost upsetting the table – and, more importantly, Iroh’s prized teapot. It had been a gift from his son. “I guess Aang realized he could learn firebending from Zuko after all, and decided to get on with things. Two sparrowkeets, one boomerang!”

“We are still waiting on word that the Avatar has arrived at the Northern Tribe,” Iroh cautioned him. “So it may take a little while for Avatar Aang to begin his training; and for your sister too, of course.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that,” Sokka shook his head with a wry shrug. “The way Katara goes about her practicing, she’ll be a master before we even _get_ there.”

…

Waterbending practice with Katara was awesome, Aang thought to himself happily. It was so much more fun than practicing with Master Pakku. Pakku kept being all, _you're moving the water around, but you're not feeling the push and pull_ , and he never seemed to show any enthusiasm whenever Aang got pretty good at a move. Katara had been right – he _was_ a big jerk.

But Katara was way more excited about practicing, and whatever Aang showed her, she paid real attention to. Aang could still remember what Sokka had said about not trying to make Katara an airbender, but maybe if she kept paying this much attention to Aang when he talked about what life as an Air Nomad was like, she’d learn to love it just as much as he did!

“Okay, Katara,” he said, bending up some water from the slush around them and doing a few cool moves to show Katara what he’d been practicing in his lessons earlier. “Master Pakku said this move is all about sinking and floating.”

Katara was really good at bending, he thought to himself as he watched her. Sokka and Zuko had kept talking about how hard she worked at her bending, but the way she was bending so easily, Aang thought she was a natural. Just like airbending came so easily to him, waterbending was something she could just _do_. She could even do amazing moves like making the water suddenly shoot up into the air!

“That was amazing!” Aang cheered. Katara looked a little confused, like she hadn’t even known she’d been able to do that. Like her healing!

“That wasn’t me,” she said slowly.

Aang’s first thought was that it might have been the Dark Water Spirit Bumi had told him about, but when they looked up to where the water was gone, he thought he might actually have _preferred_ the Dark Water Spirit.

Master Pakku had found them, and he was looking really angry.

_Monkeyfeathers!_

“I was just showing Katara a few moves,” Aang tried to explain.

“You have disrespected me, my teachings, and my entire culture,” Master Pakku ground out coldly.

Aang tried to explain that he hadn’t meant to disrespect Master Pakku, he’d just wanted to teach Katara how to waterbend, but it seemed like Pakku didn’t want to hear it.

“You are no longer welcome as my student,” he pronounced.

 _Ohhhhhh, monkeyfeathers_.

Maybe Master Pakku was just kind of mad, Aang thought hopefully. Like how Katara and Sokka had been mad at him when he’d hidden the map showing where their Dad was. This was sort of like that, right? Aang hadn’t meant to hurt their feelings by trying to hide what he was doing from them, but they’d come around once they’d realized that he really hadn’t meant it that way. Maybe Pakku would realize that he’d overreacted, too!

But when Aang had showed up to dawn practice like he’d been doing for the past couple of days, Pakku hadn’t been there. That had been a bit rubbish – Aang had gotten up _really_ early for that!

So he’d tried to go to Chief Arnook and tell him that Master Pakku had given up training him, but then Chief Arnook had got Master Pakku to come in and explain his side of the story. And then Master Pakku had started going on about how Aang had been disrespecting his culture by taking the weighty responsibility of combative waterbending and offering it to a woman, someone who had their own responsibilities and shouldn’t have the duty of fighting on top of that.

Aang hadn’t even been _doing_ that! He’d just been showing Katara a few moves!

So then Katara had had to come in and tell her side of the story, and she’d explained about how she had come all the way from the South Pole to learn to bend her element, and about how she’d been so disappointed that Master Pakku wouldn’t teach her. She understood that Master Pakku’s culture was really important to him, and she didn’t want Aang to have to miss out on waterbending just because he was angry at her.

“What do you want me to do?” Chief Arnook asked. “Force Master Pakku to take Aang back as his student?”

“Yes,” Katara admitted, before pausing. “Please.”

Arnook sighed and looked towards Pakku. He still looked kind of mad, and he’d folded his arms as he stared at Katara with the same _Mad_ look Zuko got whenever Sokka did something he didn’t like.

“I suspect he might change his mind,” he said, and Aang felt relieved that things were all going to turn out okay.

“If you swallow your pride and apologize to him,” Arnook continued.

“ _Fine_ ,” Katara sighed.

Aang didn’t think an apology had been too bad. When he’d apologized to Katara and Sokka, things had turned out okay. But then Katara didn’t apologize for a bit, and then the silence stretched on and became a bit awkward.

“I'm waiting, little girl,” Pakku said, a bit rudely in Aang’s opinion.

That seemed to make Katara mad too, but not mad in the same way as when Zuko got mad. When Zuko got mad, he usually muttered a lot under his breath and spent a lot of time meditating with his candles. Even when he’d been angry at Aang for lying in the Great Divide, he’d just told him very firmly that he shouldn’t lie and that he was disappointed in him. The only time he’d _really_ gotten mad enough to shout at Aang was when Aang had accidentally been caught by Zhao in Pohuai Stronghold.

But this time, Katara got mad enough to shout at Pakku.

“No!” She yelled, pointing up at him like she was about to accuse him of something. “No way am I apologizing to a sour old man like you!”

Aang took a step back as the ice cracked underneath them, but then the whole ice room shook and a pot fell down and shattered.

“Uh,” he began nervously. He didn’t want the room to fall in on them. He’d already been trapped in ice for a hundred years; he didn’t want it to happen again! “Katara?”

But she wasn’t listening to him. Katara was _really_ mad.

“I'll be outside if you're man enough to fight me!” She shouted at Master Pakku before turning around and storming off.

Aang gulped. The last time Katara had stormed off like that, he’d thought she and Sokka were going to leave him all alone. But they’d come back, he remembered. They’d remembered that they’d made a mistake in leaving him when they were mad!

But the Northern Water Tribe hadn’t been there for that, he realized. He should probably try and reassure them that Katara wasn’t _that_ mad at them.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean that,” he said, giving Arnook and Pakku and Yue a big smile that he wasn’t really sure looked as confident as he wanted it to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avatar Wiki suggests that the words at the top-left of Iroh’s portrait of [Lu Ten](https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Lu_Ten) can be roughly translated as  
> "General Iroh, I will see you again when victory is obtained. Your loyal son, Lu Ten".


	45. Chapter 45

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: In the second section, during Sokka's POV, there is a brief, oblique reference to wartime sexual violence.

It felt good to cut loose and firebend properly again, Zuko thought as he dodged one of Jee’s _screaming comets_. Even if he hadn’t missed Taki’s dumb habit of mockingly naming all their moves as she called the bouts, he’d missed stretching his firebending.

Fire needed to burn. The breath became energy in the body, and then as the energy extended past your limbs, it became fire. As long as a firebender breathed, the _need_ to bend was there. The most Zuko had been bending these past few months, before his bout with Zhao, was cooking fires and candles, and he had a _lot_ of energy that he wanted to burn through.

But just when things were getting good, Jee misjudged his second form of Scratching Terrapine Martin as he tried to counter one of Zuko’s fire blasts, and was sent crashing backwards across the deck.

He groaned as he tried to get to his feet, and Zuko hurried across to him as Taki called the fight.

“Are you alright, Lieutenant?” He asked, keeping a hand ready in case Jee struggled.

“Very well, thank you, sir,” Jee winced as he straightened up. “I see that your time ashore has not dulled your skills.”

“Uncle Iroh says that I’m only as good as my sparring partner, Jee.”

“Then the retired general is very kind to a humble Lieutenant.”

Taki laughed as she came to join them. “Either that, or the amount of mercury in Yoshida’s cooking has finally sent him round the bend.”

“I’d like to see you do better, Ensign,” Jee muttered as he experimentally stretched out his dodgy right knee.

“I’m not a bender, Jee, as you so _delight_ to remind me every time that stupid oil lamp in my room goes out,” she muttered. “Anyway, captain – if you’re done beating the crap out of this old guy, there’s another old guy waiting on the bridge for you; Master Iroh says he’s got a message from the North Pole.”

At the mention of the North Pole, Zuko had to apologetically withdraw his hand from Jee’s shoulder. “Will you be okay without me, Jee?”

“I’ve managed well enough for the past three months, sir,” Jee replied. “Certain aspects of life aboard the _Wani_ have even improved in your absence.”

“By which he means the crew’s interpersonal dynamics,” Taki added.

“Fuck off, Taki,” Zuko said reflexively.

“And the general standards of conviviality,” Jee quipped.

Zuko colored, and stalked off before they could give him any more reasons to remember his time travelling with the Avatar with _fondness_.

Taki had a rare gift, he thought as he opened the door and stepped through to the bridge. It wasn’t often he found himself almost missing Jet.

“Ensign Takahashi said you wanted to see me, Uncle?”

Sokka snickered. “You mean Taki?”

Zuko glowered at him, but he wasn’t about to tell him to _fuck off_ in front of Uncle Iroh.

“Yes, Prince Zuko,” Uncle seemed uncharacteristically serious. “We have received a message from Master Pakku of the Northern Water Tribe.”

Zuko exchanged a glance with Sokka before he turned back to Uncle.

“What’s it say?” Sokka pressed. “Is Katara okay? How’s Aang doing? Are they learning waterbending?”

Uncle shook his head. “The letter will have been sent a few days ago, Sokka – as soon as Master Pakku received word of Avatar Aang’s arrival. Whatever has happened in that time, I cannot say.”

“But they’ve arrived,” Zuko repeated relievedly. “They got there okay.”

Sokka looked just as happy to hear the news. “So we’re heading north?”

Iroh nodded. “We will not be able to approach too close to the Northern Tribe – I doubt your sister tribe would take kindly to a Fire Nation ship approaching their home.”

“No,” Sokka agreed, looking at Zuko. “Especially one as big and impressive as this one.”

He took the risk, and mouthed _fuck off_ , and he was _fairly_ certain Uncle didn’t catch him.

“You will have to take the smaller boat, Nephew,” Uncle told him. “And even such a small vessel will doubtless be spotted before you reach the walls of the North. If you are taken in by scouts or warriors, you will have to be much more polite to them than you are to Master Sokka.”

 _Agni damn it_.

“Or to Miss Suki,” Uncle added, compounding Zuko’s embarrassment. “As I recall, she was rather unimpressed with you on Kyoshi Island.”

“That wasn’t my fault, Uncle,” Zuko argued. “I can’t help that she just assumed –”

“Wait,” Sokka interrupted. “You know Suki?”

Uncle turned to raise his eyebrows meaningfully at Zuko, who cringed. “It’s… not what it sounds like.”

“Uh-huh,” Sokka said, folding his arms. “Well, what’s it sound like to you, huh?”

“Look, Sokka, whatever you’re thinking, it’s not –” Zuko gestured helplessly, as if he could bend a flame into existence and the flame would spell out whatever it was Sokka was thinking. “ _That_. Suki and I. She just – she figured out I was a firebender, and we got off on the wrong foot, and it was just a bit awkward. That’s it.”

Sokka didn’t look convinced, and he gave Zuko a gesture that translated to _I’m watching you_ in the Fire Nation. He suspected it had much the same meaning in the Water Tribes.

“Just remember, Fireboy,” he said. “Settle down. Spirit weirdo. _Not_ Suki.”

Zuko nodded vigorously to show he understood.

Uncle cleared his throat politely to interrupt… whatever this was. “We should perhaps see to preparing for your departure, Nephew.”

Oh, yeah. They’d been talking about how Zuko and Sokka were going to reach the Northern Water Tribe. Planning for that would be good; Zuko didn’t really want things to go sideways in the middle of the North Sea. That would be bad.

As Sokka packed up the last of his bags and wrapped himself up in his blue Water Tribe parka, Zuko hesitated before putting on a dark overcoat of his own. He _could_ warm himself with the breath of fire technique Uncle had taught him, but it would probably be for the best if he kept himself bundled up.

As if on cue, Uncle handed him a long scarf and a hat.

“Thanks, Uncle,” he muttered, wrapping the scarf around his neck and as much of his face as he could manage.

“Remember what I told you, Nephew,” Uncle told him seriously. “Do not reveal yourself to anyone but Master Pakku.”

“I won’t, Uncle.”

Uncle Iroh reached up to squeeze his shoulder before he stepped back. Zuko steadied himself and looked at Sokka and Jee. “Ready?”

Jee counted them down, and they shoved the boat down into the water. Zuko and Sokka stepped on, and Zuko set about firebending into the engine to set the boat on its way.

“We should be there before sundown,” he informed Sokka.

“Great,” Sokka folded his arms. “That’ll give you enough time to tell me how you know Suki.”

…

Sokka was trying very hard not to be a grumpy, angry jerk like Zuko. But was that _really_ what Suki liked?

He’d thought Suki had been more sensible than that.

“What happened on Kyoshi Island?” He demanded, resisting the urge to get his boomerang out and smack Zuko around the head with it.

It wasn’t a frying pan, but it would do in a pinch.

Judging from how Zuko was studiously fixating on bending into the ship’s engine to keep them going, he wasn’t very happy with this conversation. That was fine. Sokka wasn’t too happy with him.

“I already told you. Suki didn’t like me, and we didn’t get on. But nothing _happened._ ”

“But _something_ must have happened,” Sokka pointed out. “Suki doesn’t just randomly decide to dislike people for no reason!”

Even if that reason was something as embarrassing as _because they were a massive idiot who thought girls couldn’t fight_ , Suki always had a good reason for doing stuff.

“She realized I was from the Fire Nation,” Zuko told him flatly, shutting the hatch to the engine and turning back to face Sokka. Most of his face was obscured by the dark cloth he had wrapped around his head. “And she didn’t trust me, because – well. I was a Fire Nationer on Kyoshi, a neutral island, looking for the Avatar. Fair enough.”

“How’d she figure that out?” Sokka asked confusedly. “I thought you were from the Earth Kingdom when I first met you. And even the guys at Jeong Jeong’s camp didn’t seem to think there was anything special about you.”

“Dark hair and golden eyes are pretty Fire Nation. Or, at least, they were.” Zuko sighed. “But Kyoshi hasn’t seen what’s happened in the Earth Kingdom over the last hundred years.”

Sokka was getting a bad feeling about this. “What’s happened?”

“There’s been… a lot of children born to Earth Kingdom women in the last hundred years,” Zuko said slowly. He was looking down at the ice between his feet intently. “With dark hair and golden eyes.”

It took Sokka a few moments to put the pieces together, but when he did, his angry breath made a sound like rushing steam.

 _Ashmaking scum_.

Steam was a representation of water and fire, he realized belatedly. If that had happened to _Katara_ –

“Jeong Jeong’s camp have been fighting for long enough that they probably just thought I was seared.”

That was an unfamiliar term to Sokka. “‘Seared’?” He repeated.

“Yeah, it’s, uh – like ‘sired’, but – born of fire.” Zuko swallowed. “It’s not a nice word. To the child, or the mother.”

“What, and it’s a _compliment_ to the father?”

“The father’s rarely around,” Zuko mumbled. “But that’s not – it’s not _right_ , Sokka. I know that!”

With an effort, Sokka tried to remember that Zuko was fighting for the _right_ thing. Not the _wrong_ thing.

He didn’t support the war.

“Is that why you’ve got your face covered up?” He gestured at Zuko’s get-up. “Because you think they’ll figure you out?”

“The Northern Tribe’s kept to itself for a hundred years,” Zuko explained. “If they see that I’m from the Fire Nation, they’ll probably try to kill me. And you,” he added, almost as an afterthought.

“Okay, well – I’m very much against that idea, okay?” Sokka wanted to make that _very_ clear. “As a general rule, I don’t _like_ being killed.”

“We’ll be okay,” Zuko reassured him. “Like Uncle said – we just need to talk to this Pakku guy. He’s a friend of Uncle’s – he’s a waterbending master.”

“Someday, you’re gonna have to tell me how your Uncle knows all these people,” Sokka muttered.

“I think he met most of them at Pai Sho tournaments,” Zuko answered.

From the way Iroh had reacted when Sokka had said he wasn’t all that interested in learning Pai Sho, Sokka could believe it.

“Alright, well – if we’ve got to get to Pakku, how’re we going to do that?”

“We’re going to stick you out there,” Zuko indicated the deck. “Nice and Water Tribe-looking. And then when they pick us up, we’re saying we need to speak to Pakku.”

“And if they figure out you’re a firebender and try to kill us before we get to Pakku?”

“Hopefully, they won’t,” Zuko replied. “You’ll do all the talking, and they won’t see my face until we get to Pakku.”

Sokka sighed and decided to sit down on the floor before his legs gave out. “So you’re going to just walk up to a waterbending master and tell them that you’re a firebender?”

“Um.” Zuko opened the engine hatch again. “Pretty much.”

Sokka made himself comfortable on the floor; he figured he would be sitting there for a while.

“Is that seriously the best plan you and your Uncle could come up with?”

“They’ll probably attack us,” Zuko acknowledged, punching a fireball into the engine.

Well, there went any confidence Sokka might have had in the plan. “ _Probably?_ ”

“They might not. But if they do, we need to buy time until Pakku shows up.”

Sokka thought about the prospect of taking on a waterbending master, and decided that Zuko wasn’t the only person who didn’t feel comfortable trying to fight their own nation. “What if Pakku decides to try and attack us, too?”

“He knows we’re on his side,” Zuko explained. “The other guys don’t. If they beat me, they’ll kill me. But if he beats me, he won’t kill me.”

“That seems like a pretty big risk to be taking,” Sokka said weakly. “Assuming that he won’t try and fight you.”

“Hopefully I’ll win if it comes to that,” Zuko replied. “I was feeling pretty good in training earlier.”

Sokka hadn’t been there to catch Zuko firebending, but Taki had told him that he’d been looking pretty good. He wasn’t entirely sure what constituted _pretty good_ firebending, but he took it to be a fairly encouraging sign from the universe anyway.

“Still,” he tried again. “You’re _absolutely certain_ this Pakku guy won’t kill you?”

“Not until he’s sure what’s going on,” Zuko amended. “And that we’re Sokka and Lee, like we claim to be.”

“Still Lee?” Sokka asked. “Like you said, they’ve been stuck behind their walls for a hundred years.”

 _They hadn’t come to help the south_ , he thought angrily.

“They’ve been doing that because they knew there was a war on,” Zuko pointed out. “I don’t know what else they know about the Fire Nation.”

“Do you think they know there’s this play about a Dark Water Spirit?” Sokka half-joked.

“That’s not actually the main protagonist of the play.”

“Oh, _fuck off_ –”

“Shut up,” Zuko interrupted. “Did you hear that?”

Sokka hadn’t, but he checked out of the cabin window anyway.

“There’s a boat,” he informed Zuko. “Better check your disguise.”

Zuko nodded and tightened the cloth. “Ready?”

“Definitely not,” Sokka muttered, but he tightened his grip on his boomerang anyway. “Let’s go.”

…

Katara had waited her whole life to learn to waterbend. She was _not_ going to be reduced to begging scraps from an airbender and a firebender.

“So, you decided to show up?” She called out to Pakku as he walked down the icy steps from the council hall. She felt the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

Pakku barely looked at her as he kept walking, and she felt that adrenaline mixed with _rage_.

“Aren’t you going to fight?” She demanded.

“Go back to the healing huts with the other women.” Pakku continued walking. Like she wasn’t even worth directly talking to. “Where you belong.”

Katara tightened her fists. _Fourteen years_.

She was a waterbender, it was _who she was_. Katara had come to the North Pole to learn to _bend_ , and all she would learn here was healing.

She didn’t want to heal. She wanted to _fight_.

She was someone who would bend to protect her family. To protect the people she cared about. That’s what she’d told Zuko, when he’d spoken with her about her waterbending. He’d helped her figure out how to use her water whips, and he’d let her practice on him.

A _firebender_ had been more willing to teach her how to bend than another waterbender.

She was _done_ waiting.

She raised her arms, and swept the water up –

The water whips stung Pakku in his back and made him stop in his tracks.

“Fine.” His voice was cold. “You want to learn to fight so bad?”

Katara started to run towards him. _You have no idea, old man._

“Study closely!” He hissed, and sent two streams of water towards her. They slammed into her as she ran and sent her tumbling backwards on the ice. The snow around her was bent into a whirlpool that hemmed her and Pakku in.

Katara pulled at the water and sent it away, dispelling Pakku’s ring. If she could get closer, she wouldn’t need to bend with precision; she could just bend with power –

As she ran towards Pakku, he formed an ice wall, and she had to keep running up it and jump to avoid slipping. She managed to land on a nearby column and keep her footing, but it was a close thing. She struggled for a moment to not fall over.

Zuko had told her that a strong root was crucial to firebending, and she remembered how she had bent at Jeong Jeong’s camp. By _not_ using her legs when she bent, and instead focusing on bending with her upper body, her bending had been stronger.

As Pakku sent a burst of water towards her, she took a breath and froze her feet down to the pillar. She might not have been able to heat water yet, but she could freeze it.

“You can’t knock me down!” She shouted at the old man who would deny her a bender’s birth right.

She was a _bender_ , she _would_ bend, she _demanded_ it.

She sought out the ice in her mind and pulled it apart, and it melted into slush around her feet. She ran at Pakku again and attempted to bring the water to bear upon him, but he waved it away with a hand and retaliated with a jet of icy slush that sent her into a pool.

She gritted her teeth, but she refused to give up.

She remembered what she’d told Zuko, back on Appa. When they’d been leaving Omashu to reach the North Pole.

_I’ve never wanted anything more. And I’m not going to give up._

She froze a pillar of ice, and started throwing slim discs of ice at Pakku, and whilst he was busy trying to dodge them, she tried to follow it up with a stream of water. But it wasn’t powerful enough, and Pakku could turn it back on her.

She gasped in shock as she was drenched in icy water, and dropped to her knees in shock. Her breath was misty as her lungs shuddered.

_I’m not giving up!_

She struggled to her feet, and reached for the water. She felt something – _something, anything_ – and swept her hands across blindly with a shout. Pillars of snow loomed over Pakku, but he stood his ground and waved his arms into slow movements, and the bodies of snow became a dusty mist.

“Well,” he drawled as the mist faded. “I’m impressed. You’re an excellent waterbender.”

Katara gritted her teeth. “But you still won't teach me, will you?”

Pakku’s expression didn’t falter. “No.”

Katara knew what Sokka and Zuko would call the old waterbender.

 _Prick_.

Now that she knew she could bend the ice, she tried again, sending a wave towards him. But Pakku could bend the ice as well, and he defended himself and charged towards her. Now, she could attack with force!

She bent a stream of water towards him, but Pakku barely paused as he froze it and leapt up to guide himself along. Katara barely had time to raise her hands when he drove into her, sending her to the ground.

She struggled to her feet, gasping for air – she could still do it, _she wasn’t going to fail_ –

But shards of ice surrounded her, trapping her in place. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t bend.

“This fight is over,” Pakku told her, and all the people watching on.

“Come back here,” she yelled.

If she could just break out –

“I'm not finished yet!”

“Yes.” Pakku’s voice was cold. “You are.”

Katara slumped in her prison as she realized the truth of his words.

She could still heal, she tried to console herself. Healing could help the people she cared about. She couldn’t stop them from getting hurt, but – she could still help them. This wasn’t the end, it was just –

But she’d been waiting for _so long_.

“This is my necklace.”

_What?_

Pakku was reaching down towards something on the ground. A blue stone on a blue cord, with a symbol carved into the stone…

“No, it's not!” Katara strained again to break free. “It's mine! Give it back!”

 _Please_ , she begged silently. _You’ve already taken my dream. Please, don’t take my mother._

Pakku ignored her, staring at the necklace as if lost in a trance. “I made this sixty years ago for the love of my life.” He ran a thumb along the navy cord. “For Kanna.”

_What?_

Gran-Gran had been going to marry _Pakku?_

Katara had thought her Gran-Gran had been more sensible than that.

“Master Pakku!”

One of the men came hurrying out to the middle of the courtyard.

“Master Pakku,” he repeated, breathing heavily. “The scouts have picked up a Fire Nation vessel in the waters.”

“And why have you informed me of this?” Pakku asked harshly. Katara didn’t know if she was happy or not that he was a sour old man to everyone.

 _Prick_.

The man gulped. “One of the passengers is wearing Water Tribe colors, and the other is a firebender. They demanded to speak with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Mercury poisoning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning) can cause symptoms similar to madness.


	46. Chapter 46

As it happened, they didn’t even get halfway to meeting Master Pakku before everything turned to slush.

Sokka should have seen it coming, he reflected. Zuko’s last bright idea had involved sneaking into Pohuai Stronghold. _Why_ had he decided to let Zuko come up with the plan?

At least Sokka’s plan to save Zuko from Zhao by offering double the price had worked, even if Iroh _had_ been kind of unhappy at ending up four hundred gold pieces out of pocket. That plan hadn’t been a breeze, exactly, but at least it hadn’t fallen through. Zuko’s plan hadn’t survived the first strong gust of wind. _Literally_.

This was why Sokka was the plan guy!

He’d been talking to this guy Tarrlok about how the Fire Nation ship they’d been picked up on was actually kind of a long story when he’d had to put his hand up to shield his face from the wind. Even then, his parka hood fell back from around his ears.

“La’s _balls_ , that’s cold,” he grumbled. “Aang better not get any ideas about waking me up like that, or I’ll –”

“Fire Nationer!” Came the shout from behind him.

He jerked around to see Zuko looking extremely sheepish and surrounded by three Water Tribe warriors. A little way behind him on the ice, a bundle of cloth was being swept away by the wind.

“Uh, guys?” Sokka interjected hastily. “Look, it’s been a long time since yellow eyes were _exclusively_ a Fire Nation thing –”

But Zuko had already shot fire at the feet of the first guy to charge towards him, and Sokka’s explanation died in his throat.

Iroh had been right – his _moron_ of a nephew never thought things through!

Sokka had to dodge Tarrlok’s spear thrust and hastily backtrack out of range. When Tarrlok attacked again, Sokka feinted to the left, and spun his boomerang round to club it into his wrist. The bigger man grunted, but charged at Sokka and caught him with a shoulder. He had to quickly sidestep a vicious jab with the spear butt.

Things quickly turned from bad to worse when a second fighter joined him.

“You brought the Fire Nation to our shores?” He demanded. “You sided with _them?_ ”

Sokka couldn’t help but get defensive. Who did this _shriveled_ guy think he was?

Last time he’d checked, the _north_ hadn’t sided with the _south!_

“It’s not about _sides_ ,” he growled, ducking a wild punch and swinging his club into the onrushing Tarrlok.

“Of course it is,” the other man snarled. “Or did you forget there’s a war on?”

Sokka almost laughed out loud at the sheer _nerve_ of this guy. “Listen, wolf-breath, you don’t get to tell _me_ about what’s going on out beyond your walls –”

“Enough talking,” rasped a voice from behind them. “Take us to Pakku.”

Zuko hadn’t been talking; he’d just been fighting. He glowered at Tarrlok as he held a bone knife to an unconscious warrior’s throat.

Sokka always preferred to try and find a middle ground rather than try and stomp his opponents into the ground, but it seemed like Zuko’s method worked pretty well. They got to meet Pakku pretty quickly after that. He turned out to be a tall, thin old man with a frown, and Sokka disliked him on principle. Not as much as that _dick_ out on the ice, but still.

“It seems that I am to spend my day dealing with the tantrums of benders who cannot control their tempers,” were the first words out of his mouth. He glared at Zuko with a displeased expression.

The gap between Pakku and that _dick_ narrowed by a considerable margin, in Sokka’s eyes.

“Look, mister,” he began heatedly. “I don’t care if he’s bent a whole tornado down your crotch. Aang’s just a kid, don’t talk about him like that!”

Pakku somehow looked even less impressed with them after that. “You must be Sokka.”

He kind of wanted to say _That’s Prince Sokka to you_ , but he didn’t think making Zuko say _Fuck off_ would go down too well. “Yeah. So?”

“So I see where your sister gets it from.”

“Katara?” Suddenly, Sokka couldn’t care less about how much Aang was pissing off some old Northern guy. “Is she okay? What happened?”

“A difference of opinion,” Pakku answered. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

Sokka didn’t like the sound of that _one bit_ , but they’d already managed to annoy quite a few people here, and they hadn’t even been able to see Katara and Aang yet.

“Your uncle sent a message on ahead of you,” Pakku informed Zuko. “He told me that his nephew Lee and a Water Tribesman named Sokka would be joining the Avatar and Miss Katara.”

Zuko glanced to Sokka, who thought it sounded pretty good so far. “Is that a bad thing?” He asked.

Pakku’s lips tightened. “He did _not_ tell me that his nephew Lee would reveal himself to be a firebender three minutes after he set foot on the North Pole.”

Okay, yeah, maybe that was a bad thing. Sokka could admit that, at least. But _still_.

“Well, maybe if your guys would _listen_ to us instead of trying to turn us into polar bear dog meat,” he argued stubbornly, “We might not have needed to do that.”

“It’s fine, Sokka,” Zuko sighed. He turned back to Pakku. “Are they mad at us?”

“They are not best pleased with you.”

Sokka gave him a nudge. “Shouldn’t be too different to your ship, then.”

He could hear Zuko’s teeth grinding, and figured that however much he was pissing Zuko off, he _deserved_ it for what he’d just been putting Sokka through. Imagine betting your whole plan, and potentially your life, on the wind not blowing in a certain direction.

Sokka _knew_ it was unlikely, but he couldn’t help but think that Aang might have had something to do with all this.

“Look, we’re here now, and we’re here for Aang and my sister,” he said, turning back to Pakku. “We don’t want any trouble – is Zuko going to be safe here?”

“That’s perhaps a question you should rather have asked _before_ you arrived here,” Pakku sniffed. “I am beginning to wonder if your uncle taught you _anything_ of tactics or strategy.”

“All right,” Zuko grumbled. “You’ve made your point. What now?”

Pakku sighed. It sounded like the world-weary sigh of a man who had far too many problems, and more important issues to worry about. Sokka wasn’t impressed.

“What’s done is done,” he reminded them. “How do we move forward?”

“I will speak to Chief Arnook,” Pakku decided. “You will be put under my protection. In the meantime, you should both stay close to the Avatar and your sister. I imagine they will still be in the courtyard after our earlier encounter.”

“Encounter?” Sokka repeated.

“Ask your sister,” Pakku said, seemingly very annoyed. “No doubt she will be eager to tell you all about it.”

The thought that his little sister had been responsible for pissing off that old dude gave Sokka a great deal of satisfaction.

…

“That was amazing, Katara!” Aang was practically vibrating in excitement. “When you got those ice discs skimming off that thing you froze? That was _so cool!_ ”

Katara couldn’t help but smile too. Before he had left to go see what was going on – and it _had_ to be Sokka; a Water Tribe boy and a firebender? It _had_ to be him! – Pakku had told her in his typically brusque manner that he expected her to join him and Aang at sunrise for her lessons.

She had _done_ it!

Katara had found a waterbending master. She felt like she needed to repeat it a few times, just so it could sink in. She had found a teacher, and what was more, she had impressed him. Pakku had called her an _excellent waterbender_.

That he had still doubted her only made her more determined to prove him wrong.

“And that part where you froze your feet, and then you yelled ‘You can’t knock me down!’” Aang let out a laugh.

“I’m glad you liked it,” Katara smiled.

She was glad people had watched, too. Now everyone at the North Pole would know that girls could _fight_.

“ _Everyone_ was cheering! Seriously, that was so –” Aang broke off and looked behind her. “Uh, Katara?”

As Katara turned around, she already knew who it would be.

 _Sokka_.

She didn’t even have to think twice as she ran across the courtyard and flung herself at her big brother. He didn’t smell of the ice and cold, but he smelt of seal jerky, and the resin Dad had always used on his canoe, and…

She drew back a little bit as she smelled – whatever _that_ was.

“Did you only set off the day _after_ wash day?” She asked, wrinkling her nose.

Sokka only laughed as he drew her back in for another hug. “Missed you too, Seal Pup.”

She was so happy to see him that she didn’t even mind the smell.

“You came back,” she told him, but – well, yeah, _duh_. Of course he’d come back. He was here.

“Course I did,” she could hear the smile in his voice. “I made a Water Tribe promise. You don’t break those.”

“No,” Katara agreed as she let him go. “No, we don’t.”

She looked at Zuko, and found that he was already looking at her. She’d just hugged Sokka, she realized. It would be kind of awkward if she didn’t hug him.

“Thank you for bringing him back,” she blurted out.

“Oh.” He looked rather uncomfortable. “That’s – sure. No problem.”

“You’re acting like I’m completely incapable,” Sokka muttered. “I’m not the one who got kidnapped and ransomed –”

“Oh, fuck _off_ , Sokka –”

Katara couldn’t help the laugh she let out. Spirits, she’d even missed the way they _argued_.

“Seriously, though,” she said to Zuko. “Thank you.”

She had worried it would have been awkward, but when she half-raised her arms and stepped forward to give Zuko a tentative hug, he was warm and he smelt of Gran-Gran’s jasmine tea as her nose pressed into his shoulder.

She thought for a moment that if she closed her eyes, with the cold all around her, she might even be back in her family’s hut at the South Pole. But then a laugh rang out behind her, and she jolted back to the present.

“Better not get too close, southern girl,” a voice jeered. “Not unless you want a baby coming out seared!”

Katara didn’t understand the term, but she could probably tell from the context that the onlooker wasn’t just offering her friendly advice. Zuko tensed, and she suddenly realized that she was still holding him in a loose half-hug. She stepped back, but her apology died in her throat when Sokka rushed forward to punch a heavy-set boy in the jaw

The boy yelled out as he crumpled, and Sokka fell on him, shouting furiously. Zuko had to scramble over and haul Sokka off, dragging him back.

“Don’t talk to her like that!” Sokka snarled, fighting Zuko to get free. The other boy groaned as he struggled onto his stomach.

“Your sister’s getting _bold_ , Southerner,” he got back to his feet with blood pouring down his nose. “Talking out of line, here with an ashmaker –”

“Don’t talk to _him_ like that, you _bastard_ –”

“Sokka, _enough_ ,” Zuko hissed, giving him a warning shake.

“What do you _teach_ women in your shitty little dumping ground of a pole?” That young man shouted, and _oh_ , Katara had had just about _enough_ of men telling her what she should and shouldn’t be taught.

She had been just about to show him how they taught women at the South Pole to kick a man _where it hurt_ when a young woman stepped forward out of the gathering crowd. Katara recognized her as Yue, Chief Arnook’s daughter.

“Hahn,” she said softly. “Have you spoken with my father recently? I believe he was looking for you earlier.”

Hahn shot Zuko a vicious look before stomping away. All the tension seemed to leave with him, and Katara forced herself to let go of the water she had been about to _pull_ on and _push_ all over him.

“Wow,” Aang laughed nervously from behind her. “That was kind of weird.”

“You’re kind of weird,” Sokka muttered, stepping up to give Aang a hug of his own. “I heard you pissed Pakku off, though, so you’re not all bad.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Aang protested. “It was _Katara_ who had a fight with him, and I didn’t even have anything to do with it, but she did this _super cool_ thing with ice discs –”

“I didn’t miss the talking,” Zuko said to Katara in an undertone.

She giggled at the way Sokka was standing slack-jawed as Aang gestured animatedly. “I think Sokka talked enough that you probably didn’t even notice it was gone.”

The firebender let out a sound that might have been a laugh or a cough. “Maybe. You had a fight with Master Pakku?”

“Yeah,” she grinned stupidly at the thought of how she had fought. “About him teaching me.”

“Wow,” Zuko said. “The, uh – in the Fire Nation, teachers will sometimes fight their students to see how much they’ve learned.”

“I don’t think this was much like that,” Katara admitted. “Pakku hadn’t actually taught me anything when we fought.”

Zuko jolted back. “What?”

“He refused to teach me,” Katara explained. “Because I’m a girl.”

She was thankful to see that Zuko looked as angry as _she_ had felt when she had heard the reason Pakku wouldn’t teach her.

“But that’s _crazy_.”

“ _Right?_ ” She nodded. _Finally_ , someone who understood how utterly _stupid_ and _ridiculous_ it was! “So I had to ask Aang to teach me at night.”

“Pardon me,” a soft voice interrupted. “But would you be Miss Katara of the Southern Tribe?”

Katara turned, and found herself looking at Yue.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” she said apologetically. “I only wanted to introduce myself to you; and to your friends, of course. My name is Yue.”

“Oh,” Katara had to remember her manners. “Well, the boy in the orange robes over there is Aang, and he’s the Avatar – but you knew that, obviously – and the boy with him is my brother, Sokka, and this is…”

She hesitated as she realized that she wasn’t sure if Zuko wanted to be called _Zuko_ here.

“Lee,” he said when it became apparent that she had trailed off. “I’m Lee. I’m, uh, a friend of Katara’s. And the Avatar’s.” He coughed. “And Sokka’s.”

“Sokka,” Yue repeated, turning to look at the two boys again. Aang was bending a little ball of water around Sokka’s head, Katara noted fondly.

“Would you be willing to introduce me, Katara?” Yue asked.

Katara smiled. “Of course, Yue.”

…

Now that Zuko and Sokka were back, Aang could finally feel like everything was as it should be. He was learning waterbending with Katara like they’d planned, he’d gotten to the North Pole with Zuko like Bumi had said, and Sokka seemed to be having a great time too. Princess Yue had said that she’d been really impressed with how he had stood up to that Hahn guy when he’d been making rude comments about Katara.

Although Aang didn’t usually like violence, he’d had to agree. Hahn had been _really_ rude. There were some comments you just didn’t make, and he knew that Monk Gyatso would have disapproved of what Hahn had said, too. But Princess Yue had said that she had really appreciated how Sokka had been so ready to stand up for Katara, and Sokka had seemed really pleased about that.

“I’m telling you, Princess Yue understands that a man should be willing to drop everything to protect his family,” he had declared afterwards.

Katara had seemed to find that pretty funny. “Like the time you came across a tiger seal and got so freaked out that you dropped your spear in the water?”

Aang and Zuko had had a good laugh about that, but Sokka had gotten a bit huffy, and he’d gone off into the corner of the room to focus on a carving he was making for Yue. Aang had tried to tell him that he thought it was a really nice bear, but Sokka had told him it was a fish. Oops.

Sokka had gone on a walk with Yue the other night and he’d come back in a bit of a down mood, and he’d still been asleep at daybreak when Aang and Katara went off to practice their waterbending with Master Pakku. Zuko had wished them well, but as it turned out, he hadn’t needed to – Pakku had been really impressed with Katara’s bending, and he was even pretty nice to Aang. He told him that he had a natural talent for the noble art of splish-splashing, which he’d said was the first thing every bender in the Northern Tribe learnt to do.

So Aang had been feeling pretty good about how his training was going as their lesson was winding down, and he was pleased to see Zuko coming towards them.

“Hey, Hotman,” he grinned. “How come you didn’t come with us? You could have meditated with us whilst we were practicing!”

“Somehow, I don’t think so,” Zuko replied, glancing towards where Pakku was coaching Katara through one of the moves she’d picked up on. “I don’t think Pakku likes me.”

“Well, Pakku didn’t like me or Katara for a while there,” Aang pointed out. “But now he’s fine with us. See?”

Aang had picked up how to freeze water into ice pretty quickly, because part of the trick was manipulating the temperature of the water. It sounded really simple when he put it like that, but being able to manipulate the temperature of the air currents was one of the ways the very best airbenders were able to keep themselves in the air for such a long time. Aang had been one of the best gliders at the Southern Air Temple, so he had a bit of a head start on knowing how to manipulate temperature.

But Katara had seemed really interested in it, and she’d spent a lot of time asking Pakku all sorts of questions about how she could _pull_ the warmth _out_ of the water, or _push_ warmth _into_ the water. It had all sounded very technical, so Aang had gotten a bit bored and tried to see if he could jump off his air scooter onto the top of that pillar the way Katara had done in her fight with Pakku. That had been so cool!

“Seems like you’ve been having fun,” Zuko observed, pointing out the trail of slush Aang had left with his air scooter. “But that doesn’t really look like waterbending to me.”

He grinned sheepishly. “I, um… kind of got a bit bored?”

“You shouldn’t skip out on practice, Aang,” Zuko chided him. “I know going over the basics all the time can feel repetitive, but – trust me, if I had to listen to Uncle telling me the same things over and over again, you’ve got to listen to Pakku.”

Aang thought about it for a moment. “Can’t we just make him drink some random forest plant?”

Zuko barked out a surprised laugh, and Aang counted it as a win.

“No,” he said once he’d recovered. “But I actually do need to talk to him.”

“Oh, cool!” Aang perked up. Maybe he was going to ask to sit in on their lessons? “Can I come?”

“Um,” Zuko glanced over to where Katara was leaving. “Sure.”

“Master Pakku!” Aang waved at Pakku as they walked over. “My friend Hotman here wanted to ask you something!”

“Of course he does,” Pakku sighed. He always sounded so grumpy all the time! He and Jeong Jeong would get on well, Aang thought to himself. “What do you want, Master Lee? I’m afraid I left my Pai Sho board at home.”

Aang didn’t see what Pai Sho had to do with anything, but it seems like Zuko didn’t, either.

“This isn’t about Pai Sho,” he said. “Why didn’t you teach Katara?”

Pakku scowled, and Aang thought he could feel the temperature drop. He had to sneakily bend some air currents to warm himself up, but it was hard when he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

“It is not for you to lecture me on who I can and cannot teach, boy.”

“You taught Aang when he isn’t even from the Water Tribes,” Zuko said angrily. “And you wouldn’t teach Katara just because she’s a _girl?_ ”

“Do not presume to condescend to me and mine, Fire Nationer!” Pakku retorted angrily. “I have lived a longer life than you by far, and I have _not_ come to my conclusions lightly. The women of our tribe are nurturing, emotional, and compassionate. They are not strong, they are not violent, and they are not _fighters_.”

“You’re saying that like it’s a bad thing to be compassionate,” Zuko scowled. “And like strength comes in only one form.”

“Forgive me, Master _Lee_ ,” Pakku put a weird emphasis on Zuko’s fake name. “But whilst there are some things that transcend cultures, it is not for you to tell me what forms my culture should and should not take!”

“It’s not for you to tell her, either!” Zuko shouted. Aang quickly tried to bend the air so that his voice wouldn’t carry. “You shouldn’t give up on her just because you think she’s weak!”

Pakku looked at Zuko for a long moment before he shook his head. Aang had been worried that he had been about to _fight_ Zuko, but then Pakku said something that had made Zuko really mad.

“Be careful that you do not dictate to me, boy. Otherwise, you’re just like your father.”

Zuko had let out a really loud shout and melted the snow around him with a really big fireball before he’d stormed off. Aang had been really worried when he’d seen them arguing, but the casual way Zuko used his element to cause so much violence worried him even more.


	47. Chapter 47

Sokka had always known that in order to be a man of the Southern Water Tribe like his Dad, he had to be willing to do anything to protect his family. He needed to be brave and ready for anything, and if danger came, he needed to be ready to lay down his life.

Sokka understood this, but it seemed like the other nations didn’t get it. Or, at least, the women in the other nations didn’t seem to get it. Whenever he had told Suki about how being a warrior of his Tribe involved being a man, she’d always gotten annoyed at him. Now that he understood that she could be a warrior _and_ a girl too, he kind of understood where she was coming from. She’d thought that he’d meant you had to have boy parts to be a warrior, and yeah, okay, Sokka _had_ meant that, but then Suki had taught him that women could be warriors, too. Sokka was _evolved_ , now. But he still thought that you had to be a _man_ to be a warrior, and he didn’t think Suki quite understood where he was coming from on that front.

Because being a man was _different_ to being a boy. And that applied for how you needed to be a _woman_ to be a warrior, too! You couldn’t just be a _girl_ , you needed to be grown-up, and mature, and responsible. Even if Suki had said she could be a warrior and a girl, it wasn’t the _word_ so much as the _principle_ of the concept; Suki was _clearly_ grown-up, and mature, and responsible – therefore, she was a warrior.

It wasn’t enough just to be old enough to go ice dodging, and then _bam_ , you were old enough to be a warrior. To be a warrior of the Tribe, you needed to be able to show that you could protect the people you cared about. From what Zuko had said about the way Katara was fueling her bending, Sokka’s little sister seemed to understand that, and the way her bending had been coming along, Sokka was pretty sure Katara would be a warrior before too long. And Sokka was okay with that, because warriors could be girls, too. Women. Girls. Whatever.

But the Fire Nation didn’t seem to get it, either. He’d been cool when Takahashi had said that she didn’t need a man to protect her. Hey, Suki had said that too, and Sokka agreed. He was pretty sure Katara wouldn’t need him to protect her, sooner or later! But he’d gotten confused when Takahashi had said she didn’t _want_ a man to protect her.

That just didn’t make _sense_ to Sokka. Bato had always said that the greatest reason Sokka’s Mom had loved his Dad was because he had always made her feel safe. Why wouldn’t a woman want to feel safe and protected when she was with a man?

But Princess Yue understood where Sokka was coming from.

It was because she was Water Tribe, he thought dreamily to himself. A kind, charming, Water Tribe princess _who laughed at his jokes_ , and who understood how important it was for a man to be determined to fight to his last breath to protect the people he cared about. And she was so beautiful she took Sokka’s breath away, sometimes.

Now, as they walked along the streets of the Northern Water Tribe, he knew that this was one of those times. The way her full lips parted over her brilliant white teeth as she laughed at his jokes; the way her blue eyes shone with such kindness and compassion when she spoke about how excited she was for the little waterbending girls to learn how to heal hurts and wounds, and soothe aches and pains; the way her thin eyebrows pulled together in irritation as the wind would sometimes blow a lock of hair into her face, and the way she would blow it away with puffed-up cheeks.

Iroh had called Sokka a _Prince_ , he remembered. He wasn’t sure how much stock the Northern Water Tribe put in the south’s leadership structure, and he wasn’t even sure if you could break off an engagement in the Northern Tribe, but… he had to _try_.

“What are you thinking about, Sokka?”

“Hmm?” He blinked, and saw Yue’s blue eyes gazing back at him. She gave him an understanding, patient smile, and he had to start remembering what he had been thinking about all over again.

“I was, uh –” he scrambled for an answer that didn’t give away just how deep in an ocean of unmanly _feelings_ he was. “I was actually thinking about what it means to be royalty.”

Yue was getting good at hiding how amused Sokka’s comments made her, so the only hint that she was entertained by his topic of conversation was the quirk of her smile, which she promptly hid behind a prim glove.

Sokka _loved_ trying to tease Yue back out from behind her shy walls.

“Well, perhaps we might be able to put our heads together and come up with an answer,” she offered. Sokka tried not to think about the last time they’d put their heads together – if he thought too much about it, he was liable to get distracted…

Okay, so Yue had kissed him. She’d _kissed_ him. On the mouth! She’d _really_ kissed him on the mouth. Her lips had been so soft, and her mouth had been so sweet – and Sokka had known that Yue was the kind of girl who wanted to be protected, and he’d known in, like, an abstract way that he wanted to protect her, because that was just what men _did_ , but…

He’d known then that he’d wanted to protect her and be _her man_. The one who stood firm and defended her, and protected her, and loved her.

Like he was saying, he was liable to get distracted.

“Maybe you can lead the way, Princess,” he gestured towards one of the glistening ice bridges that spanned the river. He didn’t stare as she walked past him. Much.

“In our walking, or our words?” She asked.

 _Either_ , Sokka wanted to say, but that would be disgustingly soppy, and Bato would never let him live it down.

“Whichever you’d prefer,” he replied. “Our wanderings, or our wonderings,” he added in a burst of inspiration.

She graced him with a smile, and he thought that was enough.

“Well, to be royalty here in the north invariably involves certain responsibilities,” Yue explained as they resumed their walking side-by-side. “I have my duties to the spirits, and as the daughter of the Chief, I have my family to consider. But there are times of repose as well.”

“It’s good that there are high points to being royalty,” Sokka agreed. “Like those towers in the palace, huh?”

“They are rather noticeable,” Yue agreed.

“I’d never seen anything like them before,” Sokka admitted. “Nothing like them back where I come from.”

“So they don't have palaces in the Southern Tribe?” Yue asked, as they stepped onto the bridge.

“Are you kidding?” Sokka joked as he hopped up onto the ledge. “I grew up in a block of ice. It's not exactly a cultural hub.”

 _No_ , he decided. The South Pole wasn’t a great place to grow up. But if he could only show Yue what kind of man it had made him…

He wouldn’t change a moment of it, if he could only win her heart.

…

Katara had been experimenting with her bending from the moment she had been able to figure out that raising her elbow by a few fractions of an inch had been the difference between a weak splash of water and a mean water whip. She’d wanted to know _everything_ she could about her element.

Aang and Zuko had tried to help her, and some of what Zuko had said – about how water was the element of change, about how important her stance could be, and about being able to _sense_ the water – had been really helpful. But they hadn’t been able to get past their own experiences of airbending and firebending. They hadn’t been able to get inside her mind and her bending as a _waterbender_ to help her – there had been times when she had told them how the push and the pull of her bending felt in her spirit, and they had just looked confused and confessed that they didn’t know what she meant.

But even though he was still a bit of a jerk, she had to admit that Master Pakku knew what he was talking about.

“Waterbending is not merely about moving the water around,” he explained. “It is about feeling the push and pull. You may move the water away with a push, or you may draw it towards you with a pull, but you must understand that there is a _balance_.”

“How do you make sure they stay balanced?” Katara asked, her concentration momentarily diverted from the block of ice she was trying to melt.

“You do not,” Pakku stated simply. “The balance does not _stay_ – it is in constant motion, as is your bending. You must adjust your pushing to allow for the pull; then, once you have pulled as much as the water can stand, you must be ready to push.”

“Then how do you achieve balance?” Katara asked. She experimented with _pulling_ the cold out of the ice; a few droplets of water trickled down the sides.

“Few waterbenders ever truly grasp the importance of balance,” Pakku acknowledged. “I, myself, still lack that wisdom. We are all creatures of give and take, and yet, we all are one or the other to some degree. For those who give, it is not in their nature to take, once they have given so much. There are some who never give, only concerned with being filled again. We must know ourselves, illuminated by the moonlight, and work with our element, and our natural selves, to achieve balance.”

 _Balance_ , Katara thought. She had _taken_ the cold out of the ice, and it had worked to some degree. But if she tried to _give_ …

She made a tentative effort at pushing the warmth into the ice, and she let out a little cry of triumph as the ice collapsed in on itself, spilling out into liquid water.

“Excellent!” Pakku praised her warmly. He didn’t even seem to care that the cuffs of his pants were getting soaked. “I believe that concludes our lesson for today, Miss Katara.”

She smiled, and gave him a quick bow. “Thank you, Master Pakku.”

To her surprise, Zuko was standing at the side of the training area. He and Sokka seemed like they’d really bonded in their impromptu ransom trip, and she was in such a good mood that she didn’t think twice about going over to talk to him.

“Is it what you’d hoped it would be?” He asked, as she bent what water she could out of the hem of her parka. “Back at the South Pole?”

“Yeah,” she confessed with a giddy grin on her face. “It’s – it’s amazing, how it just… it _fits_. It’s like a part of me is settling into place, when I hadn’t even known it was missing. You know?”

As she looked up to catch Zuko’s ochre eyes, he gave her a small smile.

“I know what you mean,” he answered. “When you figure out what you feel like you should have been doing all along. It feels… _right_.”

She nodded enthusiastically. “That’s exactly it! Like – I could have been doing this so long ago, you know? But I’m not going to sit around feeling sorry for how much time I feel like I’ve missed out on,” she continued, feeling that familiar passion beginning to rise. “I’m going to make the most of _every_ chance I get now. I’m going to practice every spare waking moment I can.”

The slight upwards twist of Zuko’s mouth became a grin at that, and there was no mistaking the warm approval in his golden eyes.

“Like Pakku said,” he reminded her. “With fierce determination, passion and hard work, you can accomplish anything.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, although she remembered what had happened next with a wince. “But I think he was a little hard on Aang.”

“Raw talent alone is not enough,” Zuko repeated Pakku’s words. “He’s right, but – I don’t think Aang’s _just_ got raw talent. Or you.”

“Me?” Katara was surprised. She’d barely been able to draw water up out of a river before she’d gotten that waterbending scroll.

“You had a grasp on your element before you’d received _any_ training,” Zuko reminded her. “Not a perfect one,” he conceded, giving her a small smile. “But… that’s definitely talent. And now you’re giving it everything you have.”

“I’ve never wanted anything more than I wanted to learn how to bend,” she told him, repeating her words from Omashu. “I’m giving it everything because I’m not going to give up trying to learn.”

“I have a feeling you’ll be a master in no time.”

Katara smiled at Zuko as she remembered the last time he’d said those words.

“Thank you,” she said suddenly.

“For what?” He seemed confused. “How I feel? I mean, uh – it’s _you_ that’s becoming the master, not me. I’m not even teaching you, or anything.”

Katara couldn’t help but laugh as she shook her head. “Thank you for believing in me. And for helping me when I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“I already told you,” Zuko pointed out. “You did know. I just… helped you put it together.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” she tried to explain. “You didn’t have to do that, but you did.”

Zuko looked a bit uncomfortable, and he drew in on himself and ducked his head. His thick hair fell into his face as he avoided Katara’s eye. “I didn’t offer because I had to. I wanted to.”

“You did,” Katara agreed. “And then I hit you with a frying pan.”

“Yeah, you did,” Zuko straightened back up at that, and gave her a grumpy look. “And then I didn’t want to, after that.”

“But you still did,” Katara snickered to herself at the memory. “Even when I hit you with those water whips for, like, the whole afternoon.”

“Thanks for reminding me.”

“You’d forgotten?” Katara mock-gasped. “If you’re experiencing memory loss, I know a great waterbending healer –”

“ _Any_ memory loss I’m experiencing is probably because your frying pan gave me brain damage,” Zuko complained.

“I really hadn’t noticed any difference,” Katara teased.

“Fuck off,” Zuko laughed, before his eyes widened. “No, Katara, seriously, don’t –”

Katara was still giggling at how Zuko looked with his hair utterly _drenched_ in cold water when the black soot began to fall out of the sky.

…

Aang had been flying out to try and damage the Fire Nation ships all day, but there were just so many of them. _Way_ more than a whole bunch of them. It seemed like every time he used his airbending to blast a catapult into the water, or used his new waterbending skills to try and extinguish the blazing rocks before they could crash into the Northern Water Tribe’s walls, a new ship was right there ready to launch another attack.

Chief Arnook had said he wasn’t sure why the Fire Nation were choosing to launch an offensive in the middle of winter when they stood a better chance of victory if they attacked in the summer, but Aang knew it was because fire was such a destructive element. Its entire nature was to consume and destroy, and it always spread. The Fire Nation just couldn’t stop themselves from wanting to spread and try and take over the Northern Water Tribe, just like they had taken the Southern Air Temple – just like they had taken Aang’s people!

Aang hadn’t been there when the Fire Nation attacked his people. But he was going to make a difference this time.

“We’re heading for that ship on the right, Appa,” he told Appa, who gave a roar. He nodded and patted his horn to let him know he’d understood. “Don’t worry – I’ll be careful.”

It was really hard to keep fighting when the Fire Nation had so many ships. Aang and Appa kept flying, trying to take out as many catapults as they could. Aang wasn’t going to sink the ships – he would _never_ do that. All life was _sacred_ , the monks had taught him that! How could he possibly _kill?_ – but he had to damage them as much as he could, otherwise they’d still be able to launch their rocks and fires at the walls of the city. Aang had been too busy to see them , but some of their attacks had even gone clean _over_ the walls – but when he had been able to return and find this out for himself, Katara and Pakku had reassured him that they hadn’t caused any real damage.

This was _way_ more than a couple or a whole bunch of ships. There were just so many of them!

“Monkeyfeathers,” Aang said to himself, trying hard to stay calm and not panic as another ship launched another fiery rock at him. He jumped off of Appa and let Appa dodge it without having to worry about him, and sent a flurry of swift winds at the soldiers on the deck of the ship. They scattered, and he took the opportunity to land on the deck with a _big_ swing of his staff, sending an airbending _wave_ into the catapult that rippled and shook and sent the whole structure crashing into the water.

He had to scarper pretty quickly after that, because the soldiers had shot flames at him, but Appa had been there to catch him. He could still remember the first time he’d lost control of his air scooter on the mountains surrounding the Southern Air Temple – he’d felt like he had been falling for a hundred terrifying years before Appa had swooped in below him and caught him.

Now, though, Aang knew that a hundred years was a really long time. He knew that he hadn’t been there when the Fire Nation had attacked his people. Whilst Aang had fallen down the mountain, they had gone up the mountain. But he was determined to make a difference this time.

But no matter how hard he tried to make a difference, there were just too many Fire Nation ships. When he and Appa returned to the Northern Water Tribe at sunset, he had some bad news for Katara and Yue as they met him.

“I can't do it,” he told them miserably.

“What happened?” Katara asked.

“I must have taken out a dozen Fire Navy ships,” Aang explained. “But there's just too many of them! I can't fight them all.”

Aang wondered if this was how his people had felt when the Fire Nation had attacked. Like there were just too many of them to hold them off.

“But you have to,” Yue sounded like it was really important that he fought them. “You're the Avatar.”

“I'm just one kid,” Aang told her sadly.

Katara knelt down beside him and gave him a hug. Aang looked up at the sky and tried to remember what the Southern Air Temple had been like. He remembered when he, Katara and Sokka had visited, and it had been _horrible_. He preferred to remember it as it had been. There was a bright full moon in the sky, and it looked really beautiful.

Yue saw him watching the moon, and she told him that the Water Tribes had a legend that the moon was the first waterbender. Their ancestors saw how it pushed and pulled the tides, and they learned how to do it themselves.

“I've always noticed my waterbending is stronger at night,” Katara said.

“Our strength comes from the spirit of the moon,” Yue explained. “Our life comes from the spirit of the ocean. They work together to keep balance.”

Aang suddenly got a great idea. That was it!

He was the Avatar. It was his job to keep the balance! And if the spirits worked to keep the balance…

“The spirits!” He exclaimed. “Maybe I can find them and get their help!”

“How can you do that?” Yue asked.

“The Avatar is the bridge between our world and the Spirit World!” Katara realized. “Aang can talk to them!”

“Maybe they'll give you the wisdom to win this battle!” Yue looked pretty excited about it, too.

Aang was so excited that he had to wave his arms about to show how excited he was. “Or maybe they'll unleash a crazy-amazing spirit attack on the Fire Nation!”

Maybe Katara and Yue hadn’t been _that_ excited, because they looked at him a little strangely when he dd his arm movements.

“Or wisdom, that's good, too,” he said lamely.

“The only problem is, last time you got to the Spirit World because you spoke to Avatar Roku at the Fire Temple,” Katara reminded him. “How are you going to get there this time?”

“I have an idea,” Yue told them. “Follow me.”

Aang and Katara followed Yue along the royal palace to a wooden door. She led them through it into an oasis with a waterfall and some beautiful trees.

“This is the Spirit Oasis,” Yue explained. “It's the centre of all spiritual energy in our land. You can speak to the spirits you wish to talk to here.”

“Who were you going to talk to, Aang?” Katara asked.

If Aang knew one thing, it was that his friend Bumi was a mad genius. He must have told him what he’d told him in Omashu for a reason. Aang had been so confused at the time, but now he was sure he knew what to do.

“I’m going to talk to the Dark Water Spirit,” he declared confidently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Katara's well on her way to becoming a waterbending master! I wrote about Zuko's time learning his element from a grumpy old coot in [Chapter Five](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29029698/chapters/72385917) of my prequel fic, 'The Blue Spirit: Year One'.


	48. Chapter 48

Sokka had volunteered for the dangerous mission because he hadn’t known what else to do. If he couldn’t protect Yue, then… he could try and protect his little sister, at least. He and Zuko had been in the meeting together – Zuko had been there as a military consultant – or, at least, they’d been in the meeting together until Zuko had pointed out that the Tribe’s stupid captured outfits had long since been replaced with something more streamlined. Then Hahn had gotten pissy and sent him out, and he’d shrugged and told Sokka he’d be in his room.

 _Don’t leave me here with this dickhead_ , Sokka had wanted to say, but that would have been tantamount to admitting weakness, which would have been unmanly.

“Stupid ashmaking bastard,” Hahn seethed. “How do we know we can even trust that guy?”

“Because I trust him,” Sokka interjected, folding his arms. “And you can trust me.”

Hahn narrowed his eyes at him. “Such bold talk for a new recruit.”

“Sokka is from our sister tribe, Hahn,” Arnook cautioned him, and Sokka resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at him. “He's a capable warrior, and I value his input. Now, our first objective is to determine the identity of their commanding officer.”

Sokka already had an idea who it would be. “His name is Zhao,” he informed the group. “Middle-aged. Big sideburns, bigger temper.”

Arnook had clearly seen that Sokka knew what he was talking about, so he’d told Sokka to tell Hahn everything he knew about the invasion force. He didn’t know _much_ , and it would probably have been a good thing if Zuko had been there, but Hahn had sent Zuko away, and Hahn was a prick, so, you know. Whatever.

“Hahn, show Sokka your respect,” Arnook finished, walking away. “I expect nothing less from my future son-in-law.”

_What?_

Sokka hated the spirits.

He _hated_ them.

He had known from the moment he’d arrived at the Northern Water Tribe, when Hahn had started going off on him about _siding with the Fire Nation_ out on the ice, that he’d hated that dick. He’d hated him a bit more when he’d said what he’d said about _Sokka’s baby sister_.

But now that he knew Hahn was engaged to Yue, and that he _didn’t deserve_ her, he just plain hated that _dick_.

Dad had always said that if you hated something, you were letting it have control over you. But Sokka couldn’t help it. That bastard Hahn was somehow even worse than Jet!

Jet had been a thug, and a bad dude, but he hadn’t even known any better. Whilst Sokka’s Dad had made it clear to Sokka that attacking innocent civilians was _way_ over the line, Jet hadn’t had a father to teach him that. It was awful, what had happened to Jet’s family, and it had really messed him up, but after something like that, Sokka couldn’t really blame Jet all that much for having such a hardline stance on the Fire Nation. He didn’t agree with it, slush no, _no way_ , but he could understand why Jet thought that way.

 _But Hahn should know better_ , Sokka thought angrily. He was supposed to be a _man_ of the Tribe – he was supposed to put Yue first! He was meant to honor her, and protect her, and think of her before he thought of himself – and he _didn’t!_

Hahn was just a straight-up prick!

“Princess Yue is wasted on a self-absorbed weasel like you!” Sokka snapped at him.

Hahn laughed out loud, exactly like how an arrogant jerk would laugh. “What do you care? You're just a simple rube from the Southern Tribe. What would you know of the political complexities of our life? _No offense_.”

Simple rube? Political complexities?

That did it.

When Prince Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe (victorious warrior; Manly) was hauled off Hahn (defeated combatant; total prick), he was also hauled off the mission. He’d been fiddling with his boomerang when Arnook had joined him.

“Is something wrong, Sokka?”

“Oh, no,” he muttered, practicing his throwing motion and imagining the boomerang hitting a smug Northern prick’s face. “Hahn's out there on the top-secret mission while I'm here sharpening my boomerang. Everything's fine.”

Arnook sighed. “Listen to me. I took you off the mission for selfish reasons. I have a special task in mind for you.”

Sokka snorted. “What, you want me to scrub the barracks?”

“I want you to guard my daughter, Princess Yue.”

Sokka swallowed. Honestly, he might have preferred to scrub the barracks.

But Sokka was a man, and a warrior, and he didn’t shy away from doing what had to be done. Especially if it was to protect the people he cared about. He made his way to the place Yue had showed him last night – the Spirit Oasis, he thought she’d called it. When he got there, he was a little surprised to see Aang and Katara there with Yue as well.

“Sokka!” Aang jumped up to his feet. “Oh, man, am I glad to see you! I need you to go and get Zuko!”

Seemed like everybody wanted someone other than Sokka, he reflected mournfully to himself.

“Great to see you too, Aang,” he sighed. “Why do you need Zuko?”

“Bumi told me that the Dark Water Spirit is a friend of the Avatar,” Aang explained. “But I don’t know anything about the Dark Water Spirit! I think Zuko might, though, so I need him here to talk me through it.”

Honestly, Sokka kind of appreciated Aang at that moment in time – he hadn’t felt much like laughing today. He glanced over at Yue, who was looking down at her feet, and very obviously not looking at him, and figured that going and getting Zuko would be preferable to staying here.

At any rate, maybe he’d have to explain what Bumi had _actually_ meant, and Sokka could have another laugh.

“Sure, Aang,” he mumbled, and wandered off. As he stepped away, he could hear Yue begin asking why Aang was sitting like that.

Like she’d completely forgotten about him already, he thought miserably to himself.

When he got to Zuko’s room, he just opened it and walked in without preamble.

“You get kicked out for laughing, too?” Zuko asked from where he was sitting down with his candles.

“No,” Sokka replied. “Got kicked out for beating him up.”

Zuko looked impressed. “Worth it?”

“Yeah,” Sokka admitted. “But Aang wants you in the Spirit Oasis, so he sent me to get you.”

“The Spirit Oasis?” Zuko repeated. “What’s that?”

“It’s this secret place where the spirits live,” Sokka explained. “It’s got these two fish that swim around – one’s there for the ocean, one’s there for the moon…” He trailed off as he saw how pale Zuko’s face was.

“You okay there, buddy?” He asked. “You’re looking a little –”

“We need to go,” Zuko interrupted, extinguishing his candles with a slash of his hand and shoving Sokka out the door. “Sokka, _move_ , we need to get there now!”

“What?” Sokka shouted, already sprinting on instinct. “What’re you _talking about?_ ”

“Zhao’s going to find Aang!” Zuko screamed. “Now _run!_ ”

As they sprinted through the courtyard towards the wooden door to the Oasis, the moonlight turned blood red.

…

Zhao had been planning this all along, Zuko realized as he raced through the city. Since Pohuai, at least – with that handwritten note in his office.

 _Place, fish, spirit, moon_.

Uncle had always said it was a bad idea for mortals to mess with the spirits. The moon had turned red, and Zuko could hear screams from the streets around him.

 _What have you_ done, _Zhao?_ he asked, but he couldn’t even conceive of the answer.

“Up ahead,” Sokka shouted from behind him. “That wooden hatch!”

Zuko didn’t even slow down as he launched a fireball at the entrance to the Oasis. He just measured his breath and _bent_. The wood exploded, and he charged in before the flames and heat had dissipated.

 _Shit_.

Firebenders had surrounded Aang, Katara, and Yue. Aang was slumped on the ground, tattoos glowing. Katara was standing over him, but her arms were shaking as she tried to stave off the soldiers. Yue was kneeling on the ground with her hands clasped over her ears, her eyes screwed up in pain.

Zhao was standing by a pond, and holding a bag aloft.

“I am a _legend_ , now!” He raved. “The great Zhao, who darkened the moon. Zhao the Conqueror – Zhao the _Moon Slayer_ – Zhao the **_Invincible!_** ”

“Don’t do it, Zhao!” Zuko yelled.

Zhao looked up and saw him, but the triumphant smirk didn’t leave his face.

“I suppose I should expect such talk from _you_ ,” He drawled. “You and your Water Tribe spirits…”

“The moon doesn’t just shine on the Water Tribes,” Zuko fired back. “Our nation needs the tides too, Zhao!”

That wiped the smirk off Zhao’s face.

“Our nation?” He roared, spittle flying from his mouth. “ _Our_ nation? You are a _disgrace_ to the Nation! The Fire Lord _banished_ you! Your own father named you a failure, and you prove him right with every breath you take!”

“The Fire Lord is _WRONG!_ ” Zuko screamed. “The Nation is _wrong_ , Zhao! And _you_ are wrong, _right now_ , if you _dare_ to touch that spirit!”

“He is right, Zhao!”

_Uncle?_

“General Iroh,” Zhao sighed, turning to stare across the oasis. “Why am I not surprised to discover your treachery?”

Uncle Iroh stepped out from behind a rock formation. Zuko could see that his topknot was askew – that was unusual for Uncle… he wasn’t a man to care overmuch about his appearance, but he would never be untidy…

Had Uncle _ran_ to the Spirit Oasis?

If Zuko had ever entertained doubts about how bad an idea his Uncle thought it was to mess around with the spirits, those doubts had been well and truly cleared.

But Zhao looked unsurprised to see him there, Zuko noted with confusion. He had been _unsurprised_ to discover Uncle. So he must have been expecting him – but how could he have known Uncle was – unless the _Wani_ had been…

“I'm no traitor, Zhao,” Uncle called over to him. “The Fire Nation needs the moon, too. We all depend on the balance!”

He settled into a combative stance, and readied himself in warning. “Whatever you do to that spirit, I'll unleash on you ten-fold. Let it go, now!”

Zuko watched on, hardly breathing, as Zhao slowly crouched down by the surface of the oasis. He undid the straps on the pouch with a precision Zuko would not have imagined the admiral capable of, and tipped the moon spirit back into the pond.

Was that a koi fish?

Zuko let out a slow breath as he saw the spirit join its partner and resume their slow dance in the water. _It was okay_ , he told himself. Zhao had done many awful things, but here, now, he had chosen to do the right thing. Zhao had turned back – he had shown _honor_ –

_Zhao snarled_

_and his hand was alight_

_and Yue let out a piercing scream –_

“No!” Uncle cried.

The moon vanished from the sky, and the only color Zuko could see in this new gray world was the orange and red of Zhao’s flames. The firebender let out a triumphant yell as he stood up from the Spirit Oasis and spread his hands wide in victory.

The moon was dead, and there was an instant shift in the priorities of the Order of the White Lotus.

The Avatar was the world’s last hope against the senseless madness of the Fire Lord’s war.

Avatar Aang was lying helpless in the Spirit Oasis, protected only by a powerless waterbender who was untrained in hand-to-hand combat, and an incapacitated non-bending girl.

It was of paramount importance that the Avatar be recovered, and if necessary, removed to a secure location.

Zuko had never been good at thinking things through.

He let out a furious yell, and launched a wall of flames at Zhao that burned so fiercely, he could hear the very air crackling. He heard Sokka move from behind him, but he was too focused on this _idiot_ , this _madman_ who had dared to kill a spirit.

It was _wrong_ , he seethed, letting his fury fuel his bending. To mess with the spirits was one thing – to _desecrate_ the balance like this…

 _Zhao had no honor_.

He drove the older man back with an arcing burst of blazing orange that lit up the Oasis. He could see flashes of light out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t turn to see how Uncle was getting on.

Zhao’s face was contorted with rage and hatred, and he snapped off a searing blast that sizzled in the ground at Zuko’s feet. Zuko had to dodge it hastily, and he dove to his right to get out of the way of Zhao’s follow-up, a fireball he had launched straight at Zuko’s face.

When he scrambled to his feet, Zhao had gone.

“He went into the city!” Uncle shouted, defeating one of the soldiers with a ring of fire he had bent around their torso. “You need to go!”

“Uncle!” Zuko called back. “Aang, he’s –”

“We’ve got Aang!” Sokka yelled. “Go! Get _after_ him!”

Zuko didn’t need to be told twice. He turned on his heel and ran for the door, out into the gray, moonless night.

…

When Sokka had left to go get Zuko, Aang had been trying to meditate so he could find his way into the Spirit World. It had been so frustrating! He’d had to sit down and look at the fish to calm himself down, but then he’d gotten really pulled in by the fish, and he’d suddenly woken up and found himself in the Spirit World.

Sokka had been right. The Spirit World was really, _really_ weird. It was just full of green marshlands, but Aang wasn’t even getting grass stains on his robes. He was pretty relieved about that – green streaks on yellow would have been a _nightmare_.

He found a baboon that tried to act like they were busy meditating, but Aang was persistent, and eventually the baboon sent him off after a firefly. He had to chase after it, but he’d managed to catch it!

But then the tree branch he’d climbed up when he was trying to chase the firefly gave way under him, and he landed in water that wasn’t wet. That had been weird, but Avatar Roku had showed up before Aang could think too much about it.

“Roku,” he gasped. “The Water Tribe's under attack. I need to find the Dark Water Spirit!”

Roku seemed a little confused by this. He said he was unfamiliar with the Dark Water Spirit. Aang’s heart sank – if even Avatar Roku didn’t know what to do, how was Aang supposed to know?

“Then how am I supposed to help the Northern Water Tribe?” He cried.

“Perhaps you could speak with the Ocean and the Moon?” Roku offered an alternative. “They crossed over the Spirit World to the mortal world very near the beginning. There is only one spirit I know of who is old enough to remember.”

“Who?” Aang asked desperately.

“The spirit's name is Koh,” Roku told him. “But he is very dangerous. They call him the Face Stealer.”

Aang gulped. That sounded _scary_. Roku said that if Aang showed even the slightest sign of emotion when he spoke to Koh, he’d steal his face!

Stealing waterbending scrolls from high-risk traders was one thing, but stealing _faces?_ Well, Koh was _definitely_ going to have to haggle for more than one copper piece if he wanted Aang’s face, that was for sure!

Avatar Roku sent him off to try and find Koh, and Aang found his cave before too long. He also found a curly-tailed blue nose baboon… without its nose. Aang swallowed hard and tried not to look at its blank head. It must have shown emotion in front of Koh.

Aang needed to be careful. Roku had been right – Koh was very dangerous. He tried to remember how Monk Pasang had always been so controlled with his emotions, and how Monk Gyatso had never gotten angry or scared. Even Monk Tashi, who had always been _super_ stern, had been able to hide what he was thinking sometimes.

Aang let out a sigh, and got himself ready to meet Koh.

Koh was _awful_.

The Face Stealer had a huge centipede body, and his legs made a _click-clacking_ noise when they rustled over the rocks and the walls of his cave. Aang had to fight hard to keep his emotions in check, and not let them get the better of him. It seemed like he was better at that than Koh, who seemed to get mad at Aang for how the Avatar had tried to kill him eight or nine hundred years ago.

Apparently, that previous incarnation of the Avatar had been angry with Koh because he had stolen the face of someone the Avatar had loved. Aang thought about all the monks, and how the Fire Nation had stolen them away from him. He had to try and keep his face calm and show no emotions.

“I need to find the moon and the ocean,” he said in a dead voice.

“Their spirit names are Tui and La,” Koh informed him. “Push and pull. And that has been the nature of their relationship for all time.”

“Please,” Aang asked. He tried not to sound or look like he was begging. “Help me find them. An entire culture could be destroyed if I don't get their help.”

“Oh, you think you need their help,” Koh whispered, looking away. “Actually it's quite the other way round.”

Suddenly he lunged at Aang, and Aang almost shouted out loud!

 _Monkeyfeathers_ , he thought to himself. _That was close_.

“Someone's going to kill them!” Koh hissed, sending hot breath on Aang’s face. He had to close his eyes and try not to breathe through his nose.

Even without grass stains and wet swamp water, the Spirit World was _gross_.

“What do you mean? How can I find them and protect them?”

“You've already met them, actually.” Koh’s body snaked away as he carried on speaking, turning his back on Aang. “Tui and La, your moon and ocean, have always circled each other in an eternal dance. They balance each other, push and pull, life and death, good and evil, yin and yang…”

“The koi fish!” Aang suddenly remembered the two fish in the spirit oasis. They had been circling each other!

They must have been Tui and La!

“I must be going now,” he told Koh, trying to stay calm. He raced out of Koh’s lair, and managed to find Roku again.

“The spirits are in trouble!” He tried to explain. It was a lot easier when you didn’t get out of breath from running in the Spirit World. “I need to get back to the physical world!”

Roku nodded. “A friend is here, to guide you back.”

He gestured to the side, where a big, friendly panda bear spirit was laying down on the ground.

Aang recognized him. “Hei Bai!”

Hei Bai managed to open a weird portal full of spirit energy for Aang to jump through back to the mortal world, but when he opened his eyes and sat back up in his physical body, he kind of wished he was back in the Spirit World.

This was bad. This was really, really bad.

The moon was gone! And Katara couldn’t bend! And although Sokka and Zuko’s Uncle Iroh had fought off a bunch of firebenders and tied them up, Iroh didn’t have time to go to the Spirit World with Aang again. And nobody had any idea where Zuko was!

What was Aang supposed to do?

The Dark Water Spirit hadn’t come to meet him in the Spirit World, he thought desperately. They had to come now. They _had_ to.

But how was Aang supposed to know them when they came?

This was why he needed Zuko around, so he could tell him these things!

**AVATAR...**

What?

**BRIDGE BETWEEN WORLDS.**

What was that voice? Was that the Dark Water Spirit? Aang dared to hope it was.

Maybe they could help him!

**KEEPER OF THE BALANCE. BUT THE BALANCE IS NOT, ANYMORE.**

Aang realized that the voice was somewhere in the Oasis. It wasn’t just in his head.

It was in the _water_.

**LET THE BRIDGE BECOME A WAVE.**

Aang stepped out into the oasis, and stared at the remaining fish. La… the Ocean Spirit…

“The Dark Water Spirit?” He whispered.

 **A SPIRIT OF DARK WATERS,** the voice said. **PERHAPS. BUT MY NAME MATTERS NOT. MY STORM GATHERS FAST. JOIN ME, AVATAR.**

Aang didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t know how to join La. But that didn’t have to stop him. Just because he didn’t know how to do something, that didn’t mean he _couldn’t_.

“There’s no reason I can’t do it,” he reminded himself.

He reached out a hand, and he saw that his tattoos were glowing with a vivid white light.


	49. Chapter 49

Katara saw Aang step into the Spirit Oasis and reach out his hand to the black koi fish with the white spot. She gasped as his tattoos began to glow, and she stumbled backwards as the water swelled around him.

Once the Avatar was only a small, glowing figure in the center of the mass of water, the Ocean Spirit began to move away from the pond, out of the oasis and out into the city.

“What happened?” Katara gasped, not sure who she was asking. Maybe someone there with her, or something out there that was listening. Some spirit, maybe.

But not the Moon Spirit, because – the Moon Spirit was _gone_.

When the firebenders had broken into the Spirit Oasis, Katara had needed to stay close to Aang and Yue, and try and fight them off. She had been able to freeze a couple of them in place, but then Zhao had taken advantage of her distraction and stolen the Moon Spirit from the water. She had been wielding a water whip, desperately trying to strike the firebender kneeling down at the edge of the water, but then he had stood up, and the moon had turned red, and her water whip had fallen to the ground.

When her bending had vanished, it had been so terrifying. She had been helpless to protect the people she cared about. But then Zuko had burst in, and suddenly he was fighting Zhao with firebending, and Katara hadn’t been able to understand. She’d only ever seen him firebending to light their fires or when he was meditating with his candles or with Aang, and suddenly he was fighting Zhao – fighting _against_ fire.

And the man from Omashu that she recognized as Zuko’s uncle had been firebending too, charging in with Sokka to fight the firebenders that had surrounded her, Yue, and Aang. She had been all alone, with Yue weakened as her connection to the moon had been broken, and Aang unconscious and helpless in the Spirit World. But then, suddenly, her brother and Iroh had been right there with her, and whilst Sokka had taken out one of the firebenders with his boomerang and another with his fighting, Iroh had taken out _four_ firebenders on his own.

The Fire Nation was evil, she told herself. And firebenders were evil. But she didn’t understand what it meant when firebenders fought against firebenders. When they fought to protect the Avatar, and the people she cared about.

“What happened?” She repeated faintly.

“Admiral Zhao has killed the Moon Spirit,” Iroh explained grimly. “He has thrown the world into imbalance, and severed your connection to the moon, the source of your waterbending.”

“But,” she struggled to comprehend what Iroh was trying to tell her. “What happened to Aang? He was there, and then – he _wasn’t_.”

“Avatar Aang has joined with the Ocean Spirit,” Iroh stated. “The mortal and the spirit have been united in the Avatar. I warned Zhao that the spirits are not to be trifled with, and now La is exacting their vengeance for the death of their counterpart.”

“But the moon can’t be dead,” Katara tried. “It can’t be – it’s the _moon!_ You can’t kill a spirit!”

“The Moon Spirit’s life was housed in its mortal form,” Yue managed. “If – if the white koi fish is dead, then the moon spirit is dead.”

Katara heard the words, but they made no sense. The moon controlled the tides – it was the moon spirit Tui that held back La’s rage and tempered his fury with her calm, restraining influence. Without the moon, then – what happened to the ocean?

But as she looked out at where Aang and the Ocean had strode out to the sea, she knew.

She ran out of the Spirit Oasis into the courtyard of the royal palace, trying to follow the trail of the giant koi monster. She scrambled up a flight of stairs, and then another, until she could hurry out onto a balcony to look out to the sea.

She couldn’t help the whimper of fear as she saw the power of the ocean.

Aang was only a tiny, glowing dot in the middle of the giant ocean wave. He moved his arms, and the whole ocean seemed to move. Fire Nation ships were sent crashing into the depths, fifty-foot waves rose up and swept over their watchtowers, and as the Ocean Spirit raised up a towering mass of water from the shoreline and _drove_ it towards the fleet, it sent the countless ships careening out into the middle of the northern sea.

Katara struggled to see if any of the ships were still visible, but she couldn’t see any. She didn’t know if that was because they had been sent so far away that she couldn’t see them against the dark water in the night time, or because…

 _The Avatar had done that_ , she realized numbly. _Aang just did that_.

She knew that there was no way the Fire Nation navy could continue their attack on the Northern Water Tribe after that. The ships wouldn’t be able to get close enough to trouble the tribe’s ice walls, and the northern warriors would surely be able to find Zhao. Even with his firebending, he couldn’t fight them all off.

The moon returned to the sky, and Katara gasped at the way she was overwhelmed by the _presence_ of all the water around her. She struggled to stay on her feet, and reached out for one of the pillars, but it melted as soon as she touched it.

She quickly focused, and tried to rein her bending back under control. _She was okay_ , she reassured herself as she tested the way she could feel and sense and touch her element. She hadn’t lost her bending, and she hadn’t lost all she’d learned.

Katara saw that the Ocean Spirit was drawing back to the ice cliffs at the edge of the North Pole. As Aang was set down on the ice, it turned back towards the Northern Water Tribe. It loomed over the city, and she couldn’t see what it was doing. It was like it was passing some awful, terrible judgement upon the Tribe, and she stood there, breathless with fear, until it turned to face the horizon, and moved out into the deeper waters.

As she watched the spirit recede into the depths of the sea, Katara thought dazedly to herself that _awesome_ and _awful_ were two very similar words.

…

When the Dragon of the West had gone to the Spirit World, he had gone as a desperate man. He had gone after he had lost… everything.

He had lost everything.

After Ba Sing Se, his inner fire had seemed so cold.

After losing his beloved Lu Ten, of blessed memory, the Dragon of the West had realized that he had drawn upon terrible emotions in order to fuel his bending. His brother Ozai had perfected Sozin School with anger and hatred, and he had been hailed as the greatest firebender in the history of their Nation. But the Dragon of the West had channeled his arrogance, his conceit, and his hubris. He had never fought Ozai, but their Nation had always wondered who would win. That the Dragon of the West was mentioned in the same breath as Ozai, Lord of Lightning, was testament to his greatness.

Or so he had believed. He had believed many things, until a young man of fire paid the price for the blind Dragon’s sins and the sins of his Nation. The boy Lu Ten had been kind, and warm, and gentle, and joyous. The man Lu Ten had been just, and true, and brave, and honorable, so honorable. But he had grown to manhood too soon, and too soon he had been stolen away. The baby had been lying in his cradle, and the Dragon had blinked, and the soldier was lying in Ba Sing Se.

The Dragon of the West had lived in arrogance, convinced of his own superiority, and the superiority of his element. But he had been a man who loved his son; it had been the Dragon’s only redemption. And as the Dragon had lost his son, though he had not realized it, he had found his deliverance.

The spirits had given Iroh understanding, but now he understood that a young woman of water must pay the price for the sins of Iroh’s Nation.

Once, his heart had broken for beloved Lu Ten, a Prince of his Nation. Now, he felt his fire turn cold again, as he realized what Princess Yue had to do.

“You have been touched by the Moon Spirit,” he told her. “Some of its life is in you.”

 _Life_ , he thought to himself. _It is your drive. It is your purpose. It is your passion_.

“Yes,” Yue said. She looked surprised that Iroh would be able to know this. Once, the Fire Nation had been known for their spiritual energy. But now, they stood against the spirits and opposed the balance.

And a young girl had to suffer for it, Iroh thought bitterly.

“You're right,” Yue continued. “It gave me life. Maybe I can give it back.”

“No!”

 _Oh_ , Iroh thought. _Oh, Agni, no._

 _Do not let the spirits be so cruel_.

Iroh had only spent a little time with Sokka of the Southern Tribe. But he knew that the young man had a brave heart. A good heart. A boy forced to carry a man’s burden too soon, always struggling to grow into armor he should not have had to wear. Too scared of being afraid to show his fear, too eager to be brave to know what true courage should be.

Iroh remembered his beloved Lu Ten, and he felt tears trickling down his face.

“You don't have to do that,” Sokka begged, reaching out a hand to Yue, the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe.

“It's my duty, Sokka,” Yue whispered.

Iroh remembered a brave, beautiful young boy who had been determined to do his duty.

 _My son, how you burned for your people_.

Sokka gripped the princess’ hand. “I won't let you!” He shouted. His voice broke.

 _Agni,_ he was only a boy. He was not a man, he was too young, _he was only a child_.

“Your father told me to protect you!”

“I have to do this.”

Iroh’s breathing was unsteady as he trembled to hold back his tears, but he knew that even if this were not a sacred moment, he could not interrupt. What words of kindness or wisdom would he be able to offer up?

The Dragon of the West had made his son do cruel things in the name of his Nation, things he had not needed to do. General Iroh had not spoken up in the Fire Lord’s war rooms – he had not risked what a young boy had risked. He was a coward, and Princess Yue was brave, so brave.

The Princess placed her hands on the koi fish, and the fish began to glow in the water of the oasis.

Iroh had looked away when Zuko had done his duty. He had been a coward. He looked away again, but the princess was brave.

The Water Tribe would knew what honor was, he hoped.

“No,” Sokka whispered. “She’s gone. She’s _gone_.”

 _The light has gone out of my world_ , the Dragon had said. _How can there be life, when there is no light?_

Iroh was a coward, but he could not leave a young boy in pain to hurt along. He opened his eyes to see Sokka holding Princess Yue. He watched on as her body faded and disappeared, as the koi began to light up and glow.

Carefully, with all the reverence he could, Iroh settled the koi back into the oasis water. He had to look away from the water as it began to glow with a blinding light.

“Goodbye, Sokka,” he heard the Princess’ voice, though it was not for him. “I'll always be with you.”

 _People we've lost, people we loved, folks we think are gone_ , the spirit had spoken. _We're still connected to them_.

The moon shone brightly in the sky as a young man wept over the senselessness of war.

And Iroh remembered his beloved son.

…

Zuko chased Zhao out into the city, but it was so dark that he could barely see. A flicker of orange – there!

He didn’t know the city well, but neither did Zhao, and he was quicker than that bastard on foot.

He cut through a side alley, but he skidded to a halt and let out a shout of frustration as he came to a dead end. He didn’t have time for this!

An aggressive firebending punch melted the ice wall, and he darted through before the steam had time to disperse. Zhao was up ahead, and Zuko gave chase. As he cut Zhao’s path off with the wall of flame technique that Jeong Jeong had taught him, he took the opportunity to close the gap and confront the admiral, the man who had been chasing them all across the world, and sent the spirits into chaos.

The man who’d cheered when Zuko’s father had set his face on fire.

“Zhao!” He yelled. “You have no honor, Zhao!”

It was the most hurtful insult he knew to offer someone of the Nation, and judging from the way Zhao wreathed his hands in flames, it meant no less coming from an exile.

“No, Prince Zuko,” he replied, batting Zuko’s fireblast away with a powerful step into his root and a punch. “It’s _you_ who has no honor. You’re the Blue Spirit – you’ve allied yourself with the Avatar! You’re an enemy of the Fire Nation!”

“I had no choice!” Zuko tried to tell him, but Zhao’s bending must have been fueled by his madness. He had to step aside as Zhao sent an inferno his way, and the ice walls around them began to melt.

“You chose to fight against fire!” Zhao shouted, disregarding the way the water began to soak into his boots. “The superior element!”

“The elements must be balanced,” Zuko gritted out, trying to move forward against the water that cascaded down around them.

“The elements need to _understand_ ,” Zhao challenged him. “Fire must take its rightful place; the weak must serve the strong! And you, Zuko the Exile, you banished, pathetic, _weak_ bender – _you_ must learn your place, and learn _respect!_ ”

_You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher_.

Zhao had been there.

Zuko let rage fuel his bending, and let himself lose control. He yelled and flung a barrage of attacks at the other firebender, lashing out with a whip of fire like he’d seen Katara do. He punched, he kicked, he used _anything_ he could to send fire at Zhao. He wanted to fight him, he wanted to beat him, _he wanted to burn him­_ –

Zhao defended himself against Zuko’s wild onslaught, jabbing and thrusting his hands and arms at the attacks to deflect and block them.

It seemed like Zuko’s fire was burning brighter, but it was only because the gray world began to darken.

“No!” Zhao gasped.

 _Too late, Zhao_ , Zuko snarled as he drew his hand back. _Now_ you _will learn respect –_

The world was lighter, he realized. It had been almost black… but he could see the red trim on Zhao’s uniform even as he let his fire die. Confused, he looked up.

And then he quickly wished he hadn’t.

The moon shone bright and full in the sky, but that wasn’t all he could see above them. A monstrous figure with bulbous eyes and bulging lips, a shapeless body and misshapen arms.

“It can’t be!”

Zuko yelled out in fear and shock as the monster reached out and snatched Zhao away from him. He struggled through the street, fighting against the flooded water weighing him down.

Zuko had been born on the Nation’s soil, born of blood and fire. He had been born under Agni’s watchful eye, under the fire spirit’s protection. The Fire Nation was Agni’s domain, whilst the Water Tribes were dictated by the will of the Ocean and Moon spirits. Zuko knew that this was the Ocean exerting its will.

The north was a land of ice, and cold, and the darkness of winter. Zhao had no honor, but he did not deserve to die in a land without fire.

“Take my hand!” He screamed, reaching out a hand to the older man.

But the Fire Lord had declared Zuko to be without honor, and the Fire Nation had rejected him. Zhao looked at Zuko’s outstretched hand, and did not take it. He rejected it, and Zuko could only watch as the ocean spirit drew his countryman away.

 _Aang_ , he realized numbly. _The Avatar is the bridge between worlds_.

The Avatar Spirit was the spirit of the age, but even the incarnation of the Avatar was a mortal. And Uncle had always said that it was a bad idea for mortals to mess with the spirits.

Zuko stood there for a long time before Uncle found him.

“Nephew,” he said urgently. Zuko blinked slowly.

Uncle had to go, he said. The Northern Tribe would be unhappy to find him here. Master Pakku would vouch for Zuko’s safety until it was time for Avatar Aang to leave. Zuko would have to continue travelling with the Avatar, but Uncle had confidence that he would continue acquitting himself well. Zuko heard it all.

“Remember your destiny, Zuko,” Uncle spoke hurriedly, glancing up at the lightening sky. “And remember that I –”

He hesitated. Zuko found his voice.

“You need to go, Uncle,” he said quietly. His voice was rough. The wind picked up, and he blinked in surprise as he felt it sting the wetness on his cheeks. He wasn’t sure if it was the spray of the water, but it tasted of salt.

Uncle hesitated a moment longer before drawing Zuko into a tight hug. He smelt of jasmine and ginseng, and his topknot almost bumped Zuko in the chin.

“This is not goodbye, Nephew,” he told Zuko. “We must regroup, and refocus. But as soon as I can, I will find you.”

Zuko’s mother had always instilled politeness and respect in him. It was one of the lessons she had taught him. “Have a safe trip, Uncle.”

Uncle nodded, and turned around. He strode away with quick, purposeful steps, and Zuko watched him go. He didn’t look back, and Zuko looked out to the sea. There wasn’t a single Fire Nation ship upon the surface of the water.


	50. Chapter 50

When Aang had woken up the morning after the invasion, he hadn’t remembered what had happened after he had stepped into the pond at the Spirit Oasis. Then he’d stepped out of his room, and a Water Tribe warrior had told him that Chief Arnook wanted to talk to him about the way he had saved the Northern Water Tribe last night. Aang had thought that had meant that talking to the Dark Water Spirit had worked, and that the spirit had saved the day!

But then when he’d met Chief Arnook in the throne room, Arnook had told him about how Aang had fused with the moon spirit to become a giant spirit monster who had taken out the entire Fire Nation navy. He’d been talking about it like it had been an amazing thing that Aang had done, but Aang couldn’t remember any of it. He just got to hear about how the Avatar had sunk hundreds of Fire Nation ships, and Arnook had been talking about _thousands of casualties_ like he thought Aang would be happy to hear that.

Aang was so confused. He’d wanted to save the Northern Water Tribe, but Arnook seemed to think that the best way to do that was by killing people from the Fire Nation. He’d acted like this was a good thing just because they were from the Fire Nation, but Kuzon and Zuko were from the Fire Nation! What if they had been on those ships? If Aang had killed them, he would have been horrified – and the monks had told him that _all_ life was sacred, not just Kuzon and Zuko.

Couldn’t Arnook see that thinking like that was just like what Jet had been doing? Arnook and Jet had both been attacked by the Fire Nation, just like Aang, but they couldn’t see that revenge was like a two-headed rat viper. While you watched your enemy go down, the one who was really being poisoned was you.

Aang felt like Arnook and Jet were watching the Fire Nation go down and feeling happy about it, but he couldn’t feel happy about it. He didn’t want the Fire Nation to win, and he definitely didn’t want to firebend, but he didn’t want them to _die_. He felt like this was something that the Northern Water Tribe could learn from the Southern Air Temple and the Air Nomads, but he remembered what Sokka had said. He shouldn’t try and make airbenders out of waterbenders.

But now they were heading off for Omashu, and Aang felt like things would be a lot better when they got back to the Earth Kingdom. He liked Bumi a lot more than Master Pakku, and he was pretty sure that if they ever met, Bumi would definitely help Pakku be a lot more fun. But, then again, Zuko had met Bumi, and he was still pretty opposed to fun.

That reminded Aang of another reason why he wanted to see Bumi. Bumi had told him that the Dark Water Spirit was a friend of the Avatar, and whilst Aang had to admit that the Dark Water Spirit had saved the North Pole, he couldn’t say for sure whether he was comfortable with how violent it had been. Bumi had said he should ask Zuko about it, and Aang thought that he’d try to do that before they got to Omashu – although maybe he’d ask it when they were flying on Appa, once they’d left the Water Tribe behind – but Aang thought Bumi should be the one to answer his questions.

“Hey, Avatar.”

Aang turned around to see that guy Sokka didn’t like coming up to him. He thought he remembered that his name was Hahn.

“Hi,” he said, a bit warily. The way Hahn had talked to Katara had made Sokka and Zuko really mad, and if Aang was honest, he’d been a bit mad too. But Hahn was an important warrior in the Northern Tribe, and he’d been engaged to be married to Princess Yue… you know, before she’d turned into the moon.

Aang had really liked Princess Yue. He could see why Sokka had liked her. She’d been really nice and kind, and the way she had been really brave and become the moon showed that she valued the spirits. That was the kind of person Aang thought he wanted to be.

“Can I help you?” He asked politely.

“Uh, yeah.” Hahn looked a bit uncomfortable. “Is your firebender friend around?”

“You mean Lee?” Aang wasn’t sure if he wanted Hahn to know where Zuko was. “Why?”

“No reason,” Hahn said. “But, um – so, like, is that waterbender girl around? Katana?”

“Katara,” Aang corrected him.

“Yeah, her. Or her brother,” Hahn added. “Like, either one’s cool.”

The last time Hahn had talked to Katara, he’d been _awful_ to her. And he’d been really rude to Zuko whenever he’d seen him around, calling him _ashmaker_ and all sorts of other stuff. He’d even annoyed Sokka enough to make Sokka fight him.

“Why do you want to talk to my friends all of a sudden?” Aang asked.

Hahn sighed, and looked down at his feet and kicked a bit of snow.

“I just wanted to say sorry,” he mumbled.

“What?” Aang was pretty sure he’d misheard that. Either that, or his ears were still full of water from when he’d been stuck inside a giant koi fish monster.

“I wanted to say sorry,” Hahn repeated, a little louder this time. “I was a bit of a dick to Kopara, and I shouldn’t have said that when she didn’t do anything to deserve it. And then I heard about how your firebender friend fought off the invaders, and that was really cool, and – I know that your buddy Snooker liked Yue,” he added, a bit quieter now. “And it’s really shitty that she’s gone, but I didn’t really like her like that, and he did, so… Yeah.”

Aang was really surprised that Hahn would say something like that. He’d thought Hahn was just a rude jerk who hadn’t cared about Aang’s friends’ feelings. But he seemed really sorry for what he’d done and for what had happened to Yue.

Hahn thought that Katara hadn’t done anything wrong, and he’d said sorry. Even though Pakku had been really mad at Katara when she hadn’t done anything wrong, he hadn’t actually said _sorry_ , he’d just started teaching her. And Hahn had thought that what Zuko had done was really cool, and even though he hadn’t liked Sokka, he’d still felt bad for him.

Aang still thought that what had happened at the North Pole last night was horrible, but he was happy to see that it had made Hahn think about how he’d treated Aang’s friends. It was like Senlin Forest, he decided. Even though things had gone wrong, things could become better when people tried to be better afterwards.

“I don’t actually know where they are right now,” he told Hahn. “But I can tell them you said that, if you want?”

Hahn actually looked pretty relieved at that, which Aang thought he could understand. Making an apology could be kind of scary sometimes. “Thanks, Avatar.”

Maybe that was Aang’s job as the Avatar, he thought. Like he’d been talking about with Zuko when they’d been sitting round their camp.

 _Settling feuds and making peace, all in a day's work for the Avatar_.

He gave Hahn a smile. “You can call me Aang, if you want.”

…

Sokka had been sitting on the ice bridge when Zuko found him.

“We should be ready to leave before noon,” he said quietly.

Sokka closed his eyes. He didn’t want to leave, but he knew he couldn’t stay. The memories of the time he had spent with Yue were just too raw.

But if he left, he would be leaving Yue behind.

“I couldn’t protect her,” he whispered.

His whole life, Sokka had known what he needed to do. What he needed to be. He had to be a man who protected the people he loved – who took care of the woman he loved.

But he hadn’t been able to protect Yue.

“I failed.”

Zuko didn’t make any grumpy comments, and Sokka didn’t make any sarcastic jokes. The firebender just sat down beside him, and they stared down at the river in silence. It could have been a few minutes, or it could have been a few hours.

“She told me it was her duty,” he said. “But I couldn’t protect her.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zuko turn to look at him for a moment. He refused to catch his eye, and the other boy eventually ducked his head and returned to staring at the water.

“She wouldn’t have had to do it if I’d been able to do my duty,” Sokka whispered.

“We, uh – there was a Fire Sage, once. Called Nakamura.”

Sokka didn’t want to hear Zuko talk about a Fire Sage. The Fire Nation had attacked, and Yue was dead. But what was the point of telling him?

Saying something like _fuck off, Zuko_ sounded like something from another life, and he was so tired.

“Nakamura said something that – I thought about a lot. When I was banished.” Zuko coughed. “‘Duty, and honor, and the Nation. Let these be your inspirations. Courage, and faith, and hope. Let these be your aspirations.’”

“I don’t want to hear about what you missed about the Fire Nation,” Sokka managed to say without breaking down.

“No, I – I just meant that it reminds me of Yue.”

“How does your _ashmaking_ Fire Sage remind you of her?” Sokka spit, twisting to glare at Zuko. “What could they _possibly_ have in common?”

“No, Sokka, I didn’t mean –”

“What, did you think I’d want to hear that?”

“I just wanted to –”

“After the Fire Nation _killed the moon_ –”

“She was brave, Sokka!” Zuko cried out. “She did her _duty_ , and she did the right thing, and she did it for her _people!_ ”

He suddenly reared back, and his eyes widened, but Sokka couldn’t speak. They stared at each other for a moment before Sokka slumped back down. It was his turn now to turn back towards the water.

He remembered how excited Yue had been for the little waterbending girls to learn how to heal.

She’d never see them grow up, he thought to himself. He had been going to fight for her. Not to win her, but to show her that he wanted to fight for her. That he thought she was worth that effort. He had been going to love her, and put food on her table, and his arms would have held her, and held up her hopes, and held up his heart to her, and held off what would harm her.

And Sokka hadn’t been able to do that, but Yue had been able to do what she had needed to do.

She’d done the right thing, he thought. And… now she was the moon. She would be there, every night, on clear or cloudy night – she would see the little girls grow up, a little more each night. Every night, she’d be there to help them bend a little stronger than they had done before.

She would still be with Sokka. She’d always be with him.

“She was brave,” he said quietly. “Courage.”

“She gave herself for the balance,” Zuko agreed. “Faith.”

Sokka closed his eyes. He’d never seen his Dad cry, but –

He _missed_ her.

“She said she’d always be with me,” he whispered. “Like – like she wanted me to look forward to it.”

 _Hope_.

Sokka wanted to stay. He didn’t want to leave. But if he only stayed because of Yue’s memory, then… he wasn’t looking forward. And he wouldn’t be staying with her, because… he’d be staying for a ghost.

“They want to leave before noon?”

If they wanted to leave, they must have had a plan. Something to look forward to.

“We’ll be sailing further south,” Zuko answered. “Appa’s tired from… yesterday.”

When he had been flying round all day. Sokka couldn’t quite believe that all that had only been one night ago. “And when he’s ready to start flying again?”

“Back to Omashu. To learn earthbending from Bumi.”

Sokka considered it. Aang had learnt waterbending from Pakku, but he wasn’t a master. But Katara was. She’d learnt so much, so fast. She’d – she was his little baby sister. But she was a warrior, now.

She protected the people she cared about. Sokka wouldn’t let her down. He’d made a Water Tribe promise.

“Katara’s going to keep teaching Aang?”

“That’s the plan.” Zuko paused. “Unless you’ve got a plan?”

That’s right. Sokka was the plan guy.

“I’ll think of something,” he said. “I’ll probably have to.”

“How come?”

Sokka raised his head to look at Zuko. “Your plans always suck.”

His eyebrows pulled together. “Thanks.”

“I’m just saying. Your plan to get us here got ruined by a light breeze.”

“You’re worse than Uncle.”

Master Iroh had been there in the Spirit Oasis. He’d told Yue what to do, but… Sokka had heard him weeping, too.

And Yue had done the right thing, to protect her people.

He sighed, and started thinking about how long it would take them to reach Omashu. “Your Uncle’s friends with Bumi, right?”

“Yeah. That’s – how we met.”

“And Bumi convinced Aang to take you with us.”

“Yeah.”

“And he told him about the Dark Water Spirit, but not about you being a firebender.”

Zuko breathed out a flicker of flame. “I’m still mad about that.”

“Me too,” Sokka agreed, before standing up. “You ready?”

“For what?”

“Sooner we set off, the sooner you can kick his ass.”

Zuko looked down at the water. “You can go on ahead. I’ve… got something I need to do, first.”

Sokka nodded. He trusted Zuko.

“We’re going to be leaving before noon,” he reminded him, and set off back to the palace to pack up his stuff.

Getting to Omashu, he thought to himself. And kicking that kooky old dude’s ass.

 _Something to look forward to_.

…

Katara and Aang had spent their last morning in the Northern Water Tribe passing a stream of water back and forth between them. She’d needed the soothing, restful motions of the back-and-forth to ease her mind.

Just knowing that her bending was back was helping her calm down. Like when Sokka and Aang had gone in Senlin Forest, and when Aang had ran away in that storm, and even when Zuko had been gone, when he’d left Jeong Jeong’s camp with Sokka to go and meet his Uncle, it was reassuring to know that her bending was back, and that it wasn’t going to leave again.

She had fretted for a bit over whether Aang might have wanted to do something a bit more challenging, but it seemed that he needed the opportunity to mindlessly practice his waterbending as well. He’d seemed tired and quiet all morning, but Katara couldn’t blame him. Last night had been… horrible.

Aang dropped the water as Sokka approached, but Katara didn’t mind too much. Seeing her brother again after everything that had happened was like a reassurance that things were okay.

“You guys ready to go?” Sokka asked. His eyes were red, but none of them commented on it.

“Yeah,” Katara said. “We’ve been ready for ages, slowpoke.”

The joke fell a bit flat, and she remembered belatedly that _Sokka_ was the funny one.

“Where’s Zuko?” Aang asked quietly. He looked so tired, with dark shadows under his eyes.

“He said he’s got something he needs to do,” Sokka said. “But he’ll be here before noon.”

Katara wanted to know why he wasn’t here _now_ , but she didn’t want to ask Sokka a question he might not know the answer to. Zuko was a firebender, and after the attack, the Northern Tribe might not have wanted him around. Katara didn’t like the idea that something had happened to him.

Especially after he had fought Zhao to defend her people.

“Were we going to speak to Chief Arnook at any point?” She asked instead.

“I think we were going to meet him at the ship,” Aang answered. “Master Pakku told me.”

Katara hadn’t been able to speak to Master Pakku so far today. He’d been too busy organizing the relief effort for the city walls and the damage the firebenders had done in their secret attack. She’d spent the aftermath of the invasion curled up in the Spirit Oasis, eventually falling asleep whilst watching the two koi fish as they slowly swam in their eternal dance.

Footsteps approached them from behind her, and as Sokka glanced behind her, Aang’s mouth fell open in surprise. Katara turned around to see Zuko walking towards them.

“Zuko, why’d you –” Aang began, but Sokka cut him off.

“That’s another one of those questions, Aang.”

Zuko’s shaven head was lowered as he dropped his bag down by his feet, and the weak sunlight gleamed on his pale skin. His golden eyes were looking anywhere but at the three of them.

Without his mane of dark, shaggy hair, he looked so different. There was nothing to hide the dark red scar around his left eye, and Katara could see for the first time just how far it was painted across his face. Right across his upper cheek, stretching past the mottled ridges of his ear, creeping up past his temple.

“I had to do it, Aang,” he said quietly.

Katara was about to say something – _anything_ – but Sokka got there first. She watched as he stepped forward and stood in front of Zuko, and offered him his arm.

Zuko’s jaw clenched, and Katara thought he might have sobbed as he breathed in shakily. But he was hesitant as he raised his own arm up, and Sokka clasped his forearm.

 _Like Dad used to do with Bato_ , Katara remembered distantly. _Like a battle brother_.

She stepped forward too, and Zuko tensed as he saw her approaching, but Sokka put his hand on his shoulder, and he didn’t step away.

Katara still didn’t know what to say, so she just stepped up to the two boys and slipped in between them, and wrapped her arms around Zuko’s waist. He smelled of jasmine, and he was warm where she held him, and she could hear his heartbeat under her ear.

She felt the weight of Sokka’s arm settle around her shoulders, and she closed her eyes and thought of home.

“Zuko?”

Katara felt Zuko’s chest move as he spoke. “Yeah, Aang?”

“Can I…?”

Zuko’s stomach jumped as he let out a breath. She thought it might have been a laugh. “Hurry up, then.”

Katara heard quick footsteps – so light on the ground, she could barely hear them – and then Zuko had let out a little _oof_ , and there was an arm around her waist, and Aang was crowding onto her side, and they were all there together in a tight, awkward, crowded, _wonderful_ hug.

Like _family_ , she realized, and she felt tears in her eyes.

“You win that round, Aang,” she felt Zuko’s warm breath on her forehead.

“Hmm?”

“At least you asked,” Zuko explained. “These two just – jumped me.”

“Oh, shut up,” Sokka muttered. “Or I’ll stick a snowball down your shirt.”

Katara didn’t want to step away from the hug to slap him, but she did debate the merits of kicking his ankle.

 _No_ , she decided, closing her eyes again. Last night had been _awful_ , and things had been so hard, and they still had so far to go, but… she liked this moment, right here.

“How many rounds have I won overall, Hotman?”

Aang’s question seemed to break a tension Katara hadn’t even noticed had been building. She let out a breathless laugh, and Sokka snorted, and even Zuko seemed to relax slightly as she hugged him.

“None,” he replied. “You never asked if you could call me that.”

“Oh,” Aang paused. “So – um, as your favorite right now… can I call you Hotman?”

“No chance,” Zuko replied, but his voice sounded a little choked. Still as grumpy as ever, then, whilst Aang was undeterred. That was just how they were, Katara thought fondly to herself as she felt Sokka’s arm around her.

She smiled as she closed her eyes again and sighed into the warmth, surrounded by her family that would hold together through anything.


End file.
